I'm outraged by how few ShiroMichi stories there are. I'm starved for content, so I decided to make my own. ¬¬

This story is set five years after Alan's defeat. Its M rating is mainly due to nudity and detailed, graphic descriptions of violence and injury.

Chapter 1

A Tanuki Cries Tonight

There were no stars visible that night in Anima City. The sky had been obscured by a horde of heavy clouds, with brief flashes of lightning announcing an incoming storm. Distant thunderous rumbles only served to seal the promise of rain. By now most citizens had retired to their beds, leaving only the streetlights to illuminate the city in the dead of the night.

It was usually at this time crime flourished, and, in the past week or so, gang violence and drug trafficking had been keeping the police busier than normal. So much, in fact, they had to request the help of a certain immortal wolf.

The very sight of Shirou was enough to make the thugs at the pier scatter all over the place like measly cockroaches, as if that would save them from his wrath. The bigger ones, a group of large bulls armed with machine guns, stayed behind to confront the wolfman themselves. Foolish mistake. In a matter of minutes, Shirou had beaten all of them to a pulp and destroyed whatever remained of their dignity by shattering their horns. It was his signature move, one that struck raw fear deep within every beastman's core instincts.

The cops managed to capture most of the running cowards by blocking the streets with their cars, while Shirou took care of a few others. In no time, the pier was illuminated by red and blue lights as cops invaded the place. The familiar face of a dark grey dog soon came out of a car and approached Shirou, who stood next to a pile of broken firearms. Detective Yuji quickly took notice of the blood covering the wolfman's fists, then looked down at an unconscious ram sprawled on the concrete floor. His horns were broken at the base, and his muzzle was a twisted, bloody mess. The old investigator couldn't help but wince at the sight.

"Rough night, huh?" He sighed, removing his hat to wipe his forehead. "This was the third cargo this week, they are getting bolder."

Shirou scowled. "This new drug has spiked quite the market, if they are willing to risk so many resources and men to ship it." He looked down at his clawed hands, observing how bloody the white fur had become. Usually, Shirou had no trouble controlling his strength to defeat thugs without lethal force, but the recent night long missions had rendered him exhausted and sloppy. Even an immortal being like himself had limits, and Shirou knew very well he was pushing them. That ram on the floor would have died if his mind didn't recall the words of a certain tanuki.

"Promise me you won't kill anymore."

"… why?"

"Promise me!" She clung to his arm with a pleading look. "Please, Shirou… how can you call yourself a protector when you don't think twice about killing?"

Shirou stared down at those determined, unblinking teal eyes for what felt like an eternity. Until, finally, he let out a defeated growl.

"Fine. I won't kill." The tanuki already had a wide, excited smile on her lips. The kind that could melt the coldest of hearts. "… unnecessarily."

Michiru nodded. "Yes. Unnecessarily…" For a moment she looked uncertain, as if silently debating her next move. Before he could ask, though, he felt the girl rise on her tiptoes and place a brief, but firm kiss on his cheek.

Shirou could only stay frozen in place as he watched his youthful housemate prance down the hall, giggling. His hand instinctively rose to touch the wet spot on his cheek.

What just happened?

"… Ogami? Ogami?"

Shirou was snapped back to reality by a hand waving in front of his face. Startled, he instinctively grabbed the offending arm and stilled it in a strong grip, until he spotted a concerned Yuji attached to it. Police cars still flashed their colors in the background, and the broken static of the cops' radio filled the ambience.

That's right. He was still at the pier.

"Sorry." Shirou released the detective's arm and stepped back, still stunned by the brief memory. Yuji simply shook his head with a warm gaze.

"You look tired, Ogami. Go home, get some rest." Yuji gestured to the busy cops walking all over the pier. "We can take care of the rest."

"Are you sure?" Shirou's voice was hesitant, but part of him did agree with the dog's words. He was exhausted and hadn't had a decent night of sleep in over a week. Yuji could see that on his baggy, tired green eyes.

"Yes. It's what, three in the morning now?" He checked his wristwatch and scowled at the numbers. "We all need some damn sleep, specially you. Now go."

Shirou sighed and gave the detective a single, respectful nod. Given the gloomy weather, it was best to head home now, anyway, before the rain came. The last thing he needed was to enter the Co-op smelling like wet dog. The booming thunder echoing in the distance only served to emphasize his decision.

With that, Shirou turned around and strode away, allowing himself to be swallowed by the shadows of the night.

As expected, everyone in the building had already gone to bed, leaving the windows completely dark. It was an eerie sight, given the Co-op was usually so vibrant and full of life during the day. Yet, this was a sight Shirou had grown used to in all his years living there. Late missions like tonight's weren't uncommon.

The wolfman felt the first raindrops hitting his fur and coat by the time he reached the door. The pungent scent of wet earth and grass was already suffocating the air around him, but thankfully that wasn't an unpleasant smell. If anything, it helped Shirou relax and oftentimes lulled him to sleep. After quietly unlocking the door and walking to his study room, he could already feel the effects of the rain's spell. The couch never looked so… inviting.

A booming thunder suddenly made Shirou jump and curse under his breath. It shook the building and flickered the lights in the study. Shirou twitched his canine ears to hear the pitter-patter of rain outside growing faster and stronger at alarming rates.

So much for sleeping to the relaxing sound of rain.

Shirou removed his trench coat and black sweater, sighing in relief when his fur was freed from its confines. He then walked to the small bathroom in his study to wash the blood off his fists. More thunders echoed outside, until all the lights went out with a crackle. Shirou gave the bathroom lamp an annoyed glare, but considering he was about to head to bed, it wouldn't be a big deal. Had that happened in the middle of a report to the mayor, it would have ruined his mood until next morning.

He was in the middle of unbuttoning his pants when his canine ears caught a new sound in the air. Shirou froze in place. This was no thunder, but a shriek of pure terror and aguish. It came from upstairs and made his hackles stand on end.

Michiru's bedroom.

Without hesitation, Shirou threw his door open and ran up the stairs as fast as he could. The screams continued, reminding him too much of the cries from those who witnessed death itself. They were blood curdling, specially coming from such a familiar voice. At the sight of Michiru's door, Shirou felt a suffocating urgency digging its talons into his chest. Memories of countless bloodied battlefields throughout his lifetime made him scared to see what awaited him inside.

"Michiru!"

The door was slammed open, and a flash of lightning lit up the entire room for a split second. The bed was a mess. Its sheets had been yanked and dragged all over the place, and the pillows were carelessly thrown across the floor. Laying on the almost naked mattress was Michiru, her eyes squeezed shut and her fur damp with sweat. Her claws gripped tightly on the sheets as she thrashed from side to side, whimpering and crying uncontrollably. Shirou's pale green eyes immediately widened in recognition at the sight.

Night terrors.

Before he knew it, Shirou was already on the bed and had Michiru's hands in a tight grip. Red smudges on the bedsheets caught his attention, as did the scent of fresh blood in the air. This wasn't good.

"Michiru." He grunted, pinning her hands on either side of her head. The tanuki's once friendly features were twisted into a visage of nothing but anguish, which Shirou found heart wrenching to witness. He wondered what kind of horrific nightmare she must be stuck in to cause such distress. "Michiru, listen to me. This isn't real. You need to wake up."

His voice was stern, but still carried a tone of genuine concern. Michiru continued to struggle violently in his grip, almost headbutting Shirou several times. It was easy to forget how strong that tanuki really was. Shirou even had to trap her legs in his to stop her thrashing.

Another thunder suddenly shook the building, drawing a new scream from the panicked girl. Gritting his teeth, Shirou leaned closer to her ears and spoke in a much gentler, soothing voice. "Michiru, listen to me... come to my voice. Whatever you're seeing isn't real, you're safe."

He kept talking to Michiru, repeating his words as if reciting a mantra. Over time, her struggles seemed to grow weaker and less frantic, which allowed Shirou to relax his grip on the girl and pay closer attention to her arms. There were multiple red scratches visible among her fur, and, judging from the blood covering her claws, it was clear where those red stains on the bedsheets had come from. In his lengthy lifetime, Shirou had grown beyond familiar with such night terrors, most of which resulted in some sort of injury during his sleep. He made a mental note to patch Michiru up once this was over with.

By now, Michiru's cries were reduced to whimpers and heavy sobs. She shook her face from side to side, still trying to escape from the nightmare's last hideous talons as her body trembled with effort. Unsurprisingly, Shirou let out a big breath of relief once Michiru's teal eyes finally blinked open.

"S-Shirou?"

Her voice was hoarse from crying and screaming, which made Shirou's protective instincts skyrocket. Michiru just sounded so fragile, so… broken. It was downright unnerving to see his companion in such a state. Before Shirou could say anything, though, she threw herself in his arms and buried her face into his chest fur, bawling inconsolably.

"I s-saw you d-die, over and o-over again. It was all my f-fault!" She wailed between sobs. "T-There was so much blood..."

"I'm fine, Michiru." Was his answer, as always. It had no effect on Michiru, though, who shook her head and cried even harder into his fur.

"I h-heard your b-bones cracking. Your limbs were t-tearing apart. Your b-blood… oh god, your blood was all over me!" A loud sob shook her frame and interrupted her rambles. It didn't seem like she was listening to him at all, but that didn't faze Shirou. If anything, this was typical of night terrors. They usually rendered their victims so inconsolable, so drowned in despair, there was nothing to be done besides holding them until the tears hopefully stopped.

A faint shuffle coming from the doorway made Shirou's ears twitch. He turned his head and found Gem and Melissa standing by the door, their eyes wide with concern. Shirou mouthed the word "nightmare" to the couple. A look of understanding immediately swept over their features, along with a glint of sadness in their eyes.

"Poor thing." Melissa whispered. "Is there anything we can help with?"

Shirou sighed and shook his head, which startled Michiru for a moment. He instinctively reacted by hugging her closer to his chest. "I'll stay here until she sleeps again." He whispered as low as possible. "You two can go to bed."

Gem and Melissa exchanged uncertain looks at first, but this was Shirou. He always knew what he was doing, and they knew very well he was a trustworthy person. The Horners took one last glance at Michiru before mumbling a quiet "alright", then closed the door as they left the room.

Besides Michiru's whimpers and the storm raging outside, the bedroom was completely silent. Now and then, more bolts of lightning would flash through the windows, but the thunders that followed sounded much farther away. That was a relief for Shirou, considering his friend's visceral reactions to the loud noises. Still, the pitter-patter of rain and mind-numbing silence easily made him lose track of time. He couldn't tell whether he had been holding Michiru for ten minutes or an hour. It didn't help that, now that his adrenaline rush was gone, Shirou could feel his original exhaustion making its presence known again.

All he knew was that, after a while, Michiru's breath slowed down to a calm, steady pace. Although her visage was still twisted into a pained frown, she seemed to have finally dozed off. Shirou exhaled through his nostrils, feeling his eyelids weight down tiredly, and shifted Michiru in his arms to gently place her back on the bed.

To his dismay, she refused to let go.

Michiru scrunched up her eyebrows and whimpered, clutching harder on Shirou's chest fur to the point of making him hiss in pain. He tried to push her away several times, but it only resulted in louder whimpers. That girl was as stubborn in her sleep as she was awake.

With the drowsiness of exhaustion clouding his mind, Shirou simply gave up and laid down on the mattress with the girl still firmly attached to him. Only one pillow remained on the bed, so he let Michiru rest her head on his fluffy chest for the night. It's not like she'd let him move her into any other position, anyway.

Oddly enough, however, there was something incredibly soothing about having Michiru's body pressed to his, especially as she rubbed her face further into his fur in search of warmth. The sensation was rather… cozy, to say the least. Without realizing, Shirou pressed his chin on top of the girl's head and breathed in her scent, which helped his body relax fully.

One last gaze at the droplets running down the windows sealed the rain's sleep spell.

"Should we wake them up?"

The first thing Gem and Melissa did after readying themselves for the day was checking on Michiru. They gave the door a very light knock, then listened for any noise coming from inside. When there was none, Gem gently twisted the doorknob and moved it just far enough for two heads to peek inside.

The sight that greeted them was unexpected. Laying on the messy bed was Shirou still in his wolf form, with Michiru looking very comfortable in his embrace. Both looked incredibly peaceful under the light of the morning sun. It was a big contrast to the harrowing scene they had witnessed last night, but certainly a welcome one.

"No." Melissa couldn't help but smile fondly at the scene. "Leave them be. They had a really rough night." She turned to her rooster husband and playfully tapped on his beak. "This means no crowing today, sweetie."

Gem would have pouted if he didn't have an avian beak now, but he still nodded. They quietly closed the door and made their way downstairs.

The sun continued its climb in the sky for a few more hours before Michiru started stirring from the depths of a dreamless sleep. She furrowed her eyebrows and mumbled something ineligible, probably a complaint about the sunlight hitting her face. As Michiru slowly recovered consciousness, she realized she was resting on something very soft and warm. Moving her fingers on it felt like touching a fluffy coat.

Her ears perked up at the sound of a grunt, leading her to tentatively open her eyes. The sunlight quickly made Michiru regret that, though. It not only blinded her drowsy eyes, but also stirred a ringing headache from deep within her skull. Michiru hissed in response and tried to hide her face away.

"Finally, you're awake."

Shirou's unmistakable voice sounded so close, she could swear she felt his breath on her hair. Michiru rubbed her eyes and tried blinking them open again, slowly making sense of the myriad of blurry shapes dancing on her retinas. It didn't take long to piece together the sight of a very ruffled, disgruntled wolf.

"…Shirou?" She half asked, half yawned. Her head felt strangely heavy and every move made that dreadful headache prick at her brain. Michiru whimpered, confused and dizzy. "My head… it feels like it's gonna burst."

Suddenly, a rush of disjointed memories invaded Michiru's mind like a hurricane. Nightmare fragments entwined with images of herself screaming and clawing at nothing. It was overwhelming, especially as she recalled feelings of despair, anguish and sorrow. The fur on Michiru's back and tail stood on end, while her teal eyes stared unfocused as if on a trance.

Until that familiar voice snapped her out of it.

"Michiru."

A warm palm touched the girl's shoulder, making her flinch. Michiru instinctively reached up and grabbed it, probably an attempt to ground herself in a mess of reality and fantasy. After taking a deep breath, she turned to look pointedly at the owner of the hand and blinked.

Wait a minute.

Michiru's eyes widened. Suddenly, the reality of the situation finally pieced together in her mind, only to hit her on the face like a brick. The fluffy thing she had been laying on wasn't her bed… it was Shirou.

A very grumpy looking, shirtless Shirou.

Michiru squeaked and jerked up so fast, she immediately went dizzy and lost balance. Thankfully, Shirou was quick to grab her back and keep her from flopping back on the mattress. "Careful." He grumbled. "Last night took a toll on you."

Last night?

A furious blush crawled under Michiru's cheek fur in response to his choice of words. After steadying herself, she looked around her room before settling her gaze on the wolfman by her side. He was kneeling on the bed now, looking at a phone he had pulled from his pants' pocket. Michiru could swear there was a hint of pink on his face too, but it was hard to see under all that fur.

"Um, Shirou?" She started in a meek voice. "What exactly happened last night?"

There was a light sigh in the air, and Shirou paused whatever he was doing on his phone to look at the tanuki. "How much do you remember?"

"I'm not really sure, it's all very confusing" Michiru scrunched up her eyebrows in thought. "But I remember being really scared and… hearing your voice."

Shirou had that characteristic, unreadable expression on his face again, but Michiru noticed a somberness to it this time. "You had a nightmare." His voice was stern as he gently grabbed one of Michiru's hands and pulled her arm to his direction. Only then Michiru noticed the angry red cuts covering its length. The dried blood parting her fur made her eyes widen. "You were screaming and clawing at yourself. I had to hold you until you calmed down."

As soon as Shirou released her hand, Michiru pulled it back and stared at both her arms in disbelief. Now that she was paying attention, there was a light burning sensation coming from the cuts every time she moved. Michiru's ears drooped as she grimaced. "I-I see…"

The wolfman narrowed his pale green eyes for a moment. That wasn't shock in her voice, it was disappointment. In fact, there was even a hint of shame in the way her shoulders slumped down. The investigator in him immediately caught on the clues.

"This isn't your first time." It wasn't a question. His voice sounded sterner than normal, maybe even accusatory. It made Michiru cross her arms in a futile attempt to hide the cuts away from his burning gaze.

She knew better than playing dumb to Shirou of all people, though. That wolf could effortlessly see through her lies. "I don't want to talk about it."

For what felt like an eternity, Shirou simply stayed in place and stared intensely at the girl. His eyes inspected her every feature with analytical precision, looking for further clues to her secrets. Michiru could only look down at her own hands and wait for the inevitable interrogation he'd throw at her.

"… alright."

Or maybe not.

Michiru jerked her head back up and watched as Shirou shuffled towards the edge of the mattress. "That's all? You won't question me?"

"No." Shirou inwardly snorted at the girl's incredulous tone. "This isn't my business, and I have more important things to do than prying into your life." He paused to adjust his pants, realizing he had left it mostly unbuttoned the previous night. Good thing he had his back to Michiru, otherwise she'd have caught the blush spreading across his face.

Michiru wasn't doing much better, however. She suddenly took notice of how nice Shirou's back looked. His chiseled shoulders were broad, and she could see hints of the well-built muscles shifting under his pelt with every move. For a moment, she raised her hand and questioned whether she should comb her fingers through that inviting, fluffy coat once more, but then she snapped to her senses and yanked her hand back. Get a hold of yourself, damnit!

Unaware of Michiru's inner conflicts, Shirou stood up and pointed towards her arms. "That, however, is my business." He continued. "I'm going downstairs to grab the first aid box. You're enough trouble as is, I don't need you getting those arms infected too."

"Hey! They aren't that bad, just a few scratches." Michiru huffed. To make a point, she extended her arms and tried to morph them, but that only resulted in a sharp yelp of pain. She tucked them back to her chest immediately.

Shirou couldn't hold back a tiny smirk. "As I was saying, I will be back shortly with bandages." He walked towards the bedroom door and placed his hand on the knob, but before he could twist it, Michiru's voice rung across the room again.

"Wait, Shirou!" She sheepishly cowered a little when he turned to face her, but her eyes shone with nothing but awe. The sight made Shirou feel something very… warm in his chest. "Did you really spend the whole night with me to make sure I'd be ok?"

He opened his mouth, ready to reply with his usual snarky, apathetic attitude. It would be easy to point out he only stayed because Michiru wouldn't let him go… but the words died on his tongue as soon as they came up.

It was that look of pure adoration on her eyes. It was so full of hope and awe… when was the last time someone looked at him like that? Most scattered in fear under his gaze. His image was menacing, it pushed others away from him with promises of pain and sorrow. There were many instances in Shirou's lengthy lifetime where his image was the very last thing one saw before death claimed their eyes.

Yet there Michiru was, staring at him like a child looking up at her hero.

Maybe, just this once, he shouldn't crush her positivity.

"Yes." His voice was gentler this time. Michiru could swear she saw a smile on his lips as well, but it was gone within a millisecond. "Yes, I did."

She nodded slowly, offering him a characteristic big grin. "Thank you."

With that, Shirou left the room and closed the door behind him. A familiar caw ringed in his ears, and soon Kuro perched on the male's shoulder. "Where were you? Hiding from storms again?" Shirou snorted before morphing to his human form. The little crow ignored him and instead narrowed his eyes, then pecked at a spot on his companion's neck. Upon inspecting it, Shirou realized there was a tuft of brown fur sticking out of his collar buckle. Shirou couldn't help but fluster a little.

"Don't look at me like that."