Hound of Hell
Chapter 14: Tricking the Trickster
Warnings/Disclaimer: Just the usual, nothing big. For reference refer to the first chapter.
Cerberus blinked as she and the false Trickster landed in a dingy alley just off a busy street full of honking yellow taxi's and humans hustling to and from their destinations. The Trickster quickly set off and merged into the crowd, leaving Cerberus no time to do anything but follow. A few people shied away and sent odd glances her way upon seeing a strange black dog exiting an alley by itself but relaxed a bit when they saw her collar and the man she was hurrying to catch up with waiting a few meters away. It seemed the collar had benefits that went outside of the realm of the supernatural, Cerberus mused as she and Not-Loki started to walk down the busy sidewalk. He was chattering on about the busy city around them, pointing to buildings and telling her why they were supposedly famous. She really didn't care because all she needed to know was that they were tall, and that New York City held a faint undertone of garbage and the smell of too many people packed in one place wafting into her sensitive nose.
After about ten minutes of walking, with the Trickster chattering away and her marching along silently beside him he finally stopped and looked down at her.
"Do you care about anything I've said in the past fifteen minutes or so? Or am I getting the silent treatment here?" He asked irritably. She looked up at him in surprise, sure she hadn't been paying that much attention but she was listening, at least peripherally. Did he really think she was going to be able to respond to him with all of these humans around? Trickster or no there was a line you generally couldn't cross, humans couldn't know about the supernatural, that's how things like hunters came about. Somehow she thought that a talking dog walking down the streets of New York counted as crossing that line.
He was still staring down at her, facial expression and aura becoming more and more impatient as it took longer and longer for her to respond. Not wanting to truly irritate the being, he was fairly nice, he was showing her around town and he had fed those dogs back at the shelter after all, so she looked pointedly around her at the humans that were continuing to walk around the little circle of space that they took up on the dirty sidewalk. He seemed to get her point because he huffed in annoyance and held up a finger imperiously,
"Number One Fluffy, Do you doubt my wisdom so much to think I would let a bunch of humans see a dog speak?" he asked, and a second finger joined the first, "Number Two, You do know you have the ability to speak Telepathically while in your dog form right?" he asked, by now actually curious.
Cerberus looked at him skeptically,
"Really? I spent a good number of centuries downstairs and I think I figured out all of my abilities by now. Besides how would you know what I can and can't do?" she burst out before looking around quickly, but the humans around them hadn't seemed to notice. Men in business suits with briefcases and the odd tourist not even acting like they were there, the foot traffic flowed around them seamlessly, Rebel Boy Angel was certainly a master in his area of chosen expertise. Speaking of said Angel-Thing, he was currently looking down at her with a shit eating grin, red lollipop making another random appearance in his hand. He started walking again, red candy twirling casually through the air as he spoke,
"Centuries in Hell or not Fluffy, I've been alive a lot longer than you, don't you think I would have run into your predecessors once or twice?" he asked playfully as he did a graceful twirling jump over a large puddle of- well she'd really rather not think about what exactly it was. He landed on the other side and looked at her expectantly. She sniffed at the foul water and stepped gingerly around the puddle as she formulated her reply.
"Doesn't mean it wasn't something special to just one of my predecessors, maybe they had a psychic predisposition?" she mused as they worked their way through the throng of tourists surrounding the Empire State Building. They'd made it a good 3 miles with only Loki's contemplative silence between them and were in a calmer part of the city when he finally replied.
"I guess we'll just have to see, we'll be here for a couple of days so you can experiment a bit then." He'd stopped walking at that point, and she realized he'd meant the 'here' part of that literally as they now stood in front of a block of slightly run down apartments. Well, Cerberus thought as she actually looked at them, they weren't that bad off, they just had a tired air about them. Loki dodged into a group of people and when he emerged from the midst of them, she doubted that she would have recognized him without the collar around her neck. He now stood at about 6' and had short spiked blond hair. His eyes were now a brilliant laughing almost sea green and though he was thinner, he still had an aura of power about him that caused the humans around him to give him some space.
It was quite obvious that the humans around them could now see them as a couple were giving her the same funny distrustful looks that she had gotten when she'd first dodged out of the alley earlier that day. Not-Loki solved the problem for her though by whistling slightly in her direction and calling,
"Here Sally! Come on girl!" Yup that's it, he was so in for it. She was a fearsome three headed dog that had the ability to kill demons even while they were earth-side and in a vessel, she was no puny little dog named Sally of all things! She forcibly held back her usually angry retort though, he was a Trickster-how often was it that someone pulled one over on him? At the very least she could try, and who knew it might be rather fun. She spotted a younger couple walking down the street sort of in their own little world, each lost in the others' eyes and presence. Her tail wagged and she put on her friendliest expression before bounding up to the pair barking joyfully, Not-Loki having a dawning expression of confused horror on his face.
The couple looked down at her in bewildered delight, the blonde lady reached down happily to pet her with a large smile on her face,
"Oh look Eric! What a sweet dog!" she chattered excitedly to the bemused looking man beside her as she ran her hand vigorously through the ecstatic Cerberus's thick fur. The man just smiled slightly at her excited wiggling form and gave her a light pat on the head and scratch behind the ears. Somebody was obviously more of a cat person, Cerberus thought before noticing Loki rushing toward them out of the corner of her eye. She spun around quickly ignoring the lady's squawk of protest and ran at him full tilt, she met him halfway and jumped slightly using her body mass and speed to push the Trickster to the ground and then started to lick his face vigorously in between more loud happy barks. The couple was rushing towards them now in amused concern and passerby had stopped to stare at the spectacle before them. The Angel-Trickster glared balefully up at her as she stepped back and let the couple help him to his much less dignified and proud feet.
"Is she yours?" the lady asked hurriedly as she brushed imaginary dirt off of the Tricksters shoulder, her boyfriend standing uncomfortably off to the side, eyeing Cerberus warily as if she might jump him next. The Not-Trickster gave them a forcibly polite smile and waved off their concern,
"Yes Sally there is mine, she just gets a bit over-excited sometime," At further concerns from the woman he held up a stalling hand, "No, no I'm fine, I'm perfectly used to it. I'll just go get her settled down into the hotel then find a dog park or something where she can run around to her content." Cerberus grinned broadly, showing off a mouthful of slightly yellowed sharp teeth as the women then began to chatter on about nearby dog parks and how she'd loved her dog as a child and really wanted another one. The boyfriend and the Trickster both beginning to look more and more pained as the conversation, or rather monologue continued for close to ten minutes. Eventually after being cut off or talked over numerous times Not-Loki managed to extract himself from the conversation and as the couple walked off down the sidewalk, he clipped a light blue leash to Cerberus's collar and they walked into the building.
Cerberus didn't dare speak for fear of breaking into hysterical laughter until they had checked in and rode up the elevator a few floors to their room. The Trickster opened the door with the key and as they walked into the room she changed back into her human form and collapsed into laughter on one of the beds. Not-Loki sprawled out on top of the covers of the second bed and looked over at her shaking form as she tried to stop giggling. He glared at her and stated quite brusquely,
"Not funny." Before getting up and busying himself with figuring out what all was in the mini fridge, despite his words though she caught the small smile that quirked across his lips just before he stood up and knew she was forgiven.
AN:/ Sorry it's been so long since an update everybody. I've certainly been busy, but I'm back now and will be steadily working on writing chapter 15. I'm tempted to say that this is a filler chapter but past this point for awhile I'll be focusing more on the developing partnership between Gabriel and Cerberus, just as pranking buddies for now, the actual pairing won't come in until much later. There really isn't much truth to that whole love on first sight thing after all though. Never fear though the Winchesters will be making further appearances though but until the whole apocalypse thing actually starts, the dynamic duo here don't really need to concern themselves with other things outside of their own affairs. What'd ya think? Let me know. 95