First installment of the second batch of daily uploads.
See Ao3 for tags & heading.
Kirito's kinda dumb in the shifter world btw.
Canine Disagreements Part 1
Trying to explain why Kirito and Shino didn't get along was nearly impossible. Since if you saw them in person, whether it was in VR or IRL all you'd see were a pair of decently good friends and computer nerds who easily rubbed each other the wrong way but still maintained a good friendship.
As animals on the other hand…
The growling echoed in Asuna's ears. The fierce, dangerous growling of two canines standing their ground and refusing to give into one another.
To be fair, Asuna couldn't entirely blame Shino, since Asuna's boyfriend got himself into enough trouble with the temperamental canine that it wasn't a surprise that Shino was still sore over what he had done just two months ago.
That didn't mean that Asuna liked the fights though, none of them did.
However, she, Argo, Kuroshiro, Eugeo, and Keiko were too small to effectively stop the two from fighting and injuring each other.
And Caylee was swimming, casually ignoring the two in favor of the cool water in the pool. Probably trying to avoid having a headache from splitting the two canines up in the middle of summer and in the one week a year that Shino was more twitchy and fierce than normal. Especially over Rika, much to everyone's exasperation.
The brunette was used to it, just like Asuna was, but it was still strange for everyone else, Kirito, Alice, and Eugeo in particular. However, the only one that actually liked the odd behavior and over protectiveness was Rika, since the brunette didn't actually mind the odd behavior and also knew that reacting badly to it only made it worse. Which she and Asuna knew from experience, since the quiet sniper could only hide and suppress so much, meaning suppressing too much made her more explosive, since she was under so much emotional strain.
However, it would've been nice if Rika was actually out here and not sleeping upstairs, having been up all night for one reason or another.
Alice, a golden lion, had tried to break the two up once, but a snarl from Shino and growl from Kirito had been enough to make her back off. Aware that she was only so big, unlike their resident engineer. Who easily had the largest animal form, at three hundred pounds heavier than Alice's two-hundred and fifty pounds.
Normally Rika was already out here, so it wasn't hard to break up the two, with Rika budging in between both of them and distracting her girlfriend while telling Kirito off for not putting down his male pride. But without her?... it became much, much harder to avoid injury to either of them or someone else.
Asuna sighed internally and sat down, wrapping her long tail around her paws as she simply waited. Hopefully Keiko had succeeded in waking up her big sister.
Since Asuna didn't want to be responsible for hunting a spooked Shino down and cornering her into a car to get stitches in her chest. While Rika hauled Kirito into the trunk of the large car so he could get stitches for the gash at his belly.
That was an experience Asuna was in no rush to repeat.
A window opening startled Asuna and the cheetah looked up at the house, only to see the groggy head of Rika Shinozaki poking out of the window.
Kirito and Shino-non are going to fight, she stated simply to her now that she could see her and effectively make a telepathic connection to her.
Rika pulled a face, like all she wanted to be doing right now was sleep, not deal with two borderline fighting canines, before she disappeared and the window slammed shut.
Asuna would've face palmed and rubbed at her forehead were she in her human form and not currently a cheetah with king cheetah markings.
Ugh… it was barely noon, and she wanted to lock Shino in Rika's room and bind the two together during this week so Rika could keep on top of the sniper's odd behavior, even if the sniper herself hated these weeks with everything she had.
Still, the fact that Keiko, a fluffy little black bear that followed after her sister's bear tendencies, came trotting out of the open sliding back door was good news. Since that likely meant that Rika was on her way. Regardless of how grumpy the bear shifter would be when she made it out, running on little sleep and being forced to break up a fight between her girlfriend and Asuna's boyfriend.
"Rika on her way?" Asuna rumbled softly to the little bear as she came trotting up toward her, likely intending to sit with her while her sister wasn't out here for her to follow around like all baby bears did. Since Keiko's animal form would'nt fill out behavior-wise till she was fifteen. Which meant she had two more adorable years of following her sister around like a mama bear and her baby.
"Mhmm," Keiko hummed and made a noise that translated to Asuna as a laugh, "cursing, groggy, fluffy hair and all!"
Oh dear, Rika was pissed.
Asuna breathed a sigh, she hadn't yet decided if it had been a terrible idea getting everyone together for the summer or not, but at this point… yeah, she kind of wished she hadn't agreed to this nor agreed to host it.
Sure enough, a groggy, rather disheveled Rika finally appeared in the back door and the brunette looked pretty mad. "Kuroshiro!" She hollered inside to the blonde currently working on lunch for everyone, "come help me kick Kirito's ass!" She scowled as she stormed across the yard toward the snarling wolves, silently waiting for the other to move enough to give them a reason to spring.
"What?! Why're you asking the fox for that- wait, nevermind! Coming~"
Normally Rika turned into her beat form and just split them up, but it looked like the brunette didn't have the energy for it right now judging by the sleepiness in her angry brown gaze.
If she wasn't going to shift, then how-
Rika waited till Kuroshiro was running out after her, drying his hands off, before she startled everyone. Unlike normal and shifting forms, the bear shifter simply slid one arm around the haunches of the smaller wolf of the two, namely her girlfriend, and another under her belly. So when Kuroshiro grabbed Kirito by the scruff when he lunged as Shino spooked briefly at her touch, Rika lifted the female wolf up into the air, effectively breaking up her and Kirito without shifting.
"You, princess, need to cool off," Rika snorted to her girlfriend, who looked none too pleased being carried awkwardly as Rika walked a handful of steps away from Kirito. In fact, the female canine squirmed in her hold, practically demanding to be put down and not have her dignity effectively destroyed.
Not that that could be rectified since even Asuna was struggling to keep from looking amused at Rika's abrupt decision to split them up.
"I'll put you down, only if you let me carry you inside in a more dignified manner," Rika disagreed with whatever Shino had told her judging by the way the female canine was whining, agitated and likely very embarrassed.
While Kirito to his chagrin was getting chewed out by Kuroshiro.
"You young man," the younger shifter told him off in a stern tone, "need to stop being so stubbornly alpha, just let the girl have it, you dickwad," he lightly swatted him upside the head and Kirito pouted. Making Asuna look away from him to keep from laughing at her boyfriend being chewed out by the blond fox shifter.
Not that she had much of anywher to look that wasn't amusing with how Rika was still awkwardly carrying Shino away from everyone. "No, cause you're coming inside with me, since I was sleeping before Keiko jumped on me."
Shino struggled a bit more before the canine reluctantly held still, which seemed to be the signal for Rika. Since the brunette then carefully put the wolf down, sliding two fingers under the collar she wore for weeks like these to keep her from running off and escaping, and let Shino turn around as she knelt down.
The canine sat down, even if her tail was twitching and her ears were pinned back, obviously not too happy with what was going on.
Before in a position Asuna hadn't seen since she, Rika, and Shino were middle schoolers, Rika slid an arm under Shino's back end as the canine reared up, and the brunette promptly lifted Shino up. Sliding her other arm around the canine's back as she did so and stood up.
Shino for her part, was evidently embarrassed, since the canine hid her head around the side of Rika's head that wasn't facing all of them.
"Stay here with everyone, Keiko," Rika told her sister as the little bear moved to trott after her, "I'm just gonna be sleeping while Shino calms down," she hummed. As she moved, Asuna rolled her eyes at Rika's solution but could see the logic in her friend's words.
Afterall, the fastest way to get the temperamental canine to calm down was to give her space and give her time to be as overprotective and possessive of her girlfriend without bristling and growling at everyone but Keiko. Not that Shino could help any of it and it was why she cursed and dreaded summer every year.
When Keiko pouted at her sister's words, Kuroshiro spoke up, grinning at the little cub while Argo looked up from her spot sitting at the edge of the pool near Caylee. "If you'd like, you can hangout with me and follow me around while your sister's sleeping~"
Really? Awesome!
Asuna breathed out a sigh of relief at the situation having been handled and finally got up to walk toward her sulking boyfriend.
Who as a canine really was an idiot.
