key: 'wolf speech' / "human speech"

NAIL I

This whole scene reeked of bad idea.

"That is not a dog… Pull it out." His low voice made them jump slightly as he nodded his chin a bit when one of the men closer to the tree shot him a reluctant glance; he wasn't blind to the slight tension in her shoulders as she didn't jump at having him appear from out of nowhere.

Her clear blue gaze was fixed on the hollowed out tree that one of his men cautiously stuck a hand in.

Like a flash of lightning, a streak of white lunged at the intruder and ripped his throat out with the same measure of speed, knocking the man down onto the cracked stone that surrounded the lone tree.

She swallowed a growl of surprise at watching the loner round on the second man who attempted to shoot him down with arrows from his crossbow and bring him down as he had done the first man, flexing her fingers that had reflexively curled into fists at her sides.

Typical of onii-san to state the obvious.

"How interesting." He hummed lowly at her side, and she stole a glance at him to see he was locked in a stiff staring contest with the loner.

The loner's snout crinkled to reveal his fangs stained with human blood, watching the apparent alpha slowly back away before he took off at a sprint away from the scene; with a snarl he flew after him at top speed with his tail in the air.

She rubbed her temples with a hand, "Seven hells…" She turned to sprint after the two, rounding one corner and then another before dropping her guise and picking up the pace.

Both males were locked in a fur-flying squabble when she reached the top of the lone tower they had run to, one wolf glancing off the other on one instance before the other headbutted and kicked the other in the head and already injured leg.

Idiots… She rushed into the squabble as the stranger lunged at him, headbutting him in the neck and knocking him away. 'Enough!' She snapped as she stood before the older wolf.

"What the hell?" He snapped as he scowled at her back.

The loner shook his head with a growl as he straightened slightly from being sideswiped, looking on the female whose tail was in the air. 'Even if you are a female, I won't hold back. Move.' He ordered.

'You're cute; do you charm all girls with that attitude?' She flashed her fangs. 'Regardless, it's only smart to stop this now before the humans get here.' She added and knew she didn't need to look at the wolf she protected to know he understood.

The other wolf recognized her point and slightly nodded, his ears twitching as they heard a set of footsteps heading up the stairs that led to the roof, and he turned away to leave them while favoring his left leg.

She looked at her brother as their stares met when he looked away from glancing at the stairs, turning to nuzzle his cheek with hers. 'Don't let them catch you.' She advised with a slight smile, turning away to follow the stranger down the steps of the other side of the tower.

::::x x::::

He wrinkled his nose slightly at the taste of age in the fountain water, looking down at his reflection in the surface before he caught the scent of that she-wolf… He exhaled slightly. 'You're not very sneaky.' He said.

She landed nimbly from having been observing him atop a low roof nearby. "You're already banged up, didn't want to worsen your condition." She remarked as she folded her arms at her chest.

The wolf looked over his shoulder at the she-wolf with fur as black as night and met her silver eyes, noting her human guise of a pretty face with blue eyes and short black hair. 'I can walk fine, thank you.' He sniffed, looking away to continue on his way, favoring his leg as he went down one alley.

She followed and kept at his left with ease due to his slowed pace, lowering her arms only to rub her neck with a hand. "It's not wise to be in fur." She commented.

'Like you're an expert on that… I didn't ask you to tag along, either.' He shot her a scowl.

"I at least know better than to waltz around a city on four legs, tough guy." She returned the scowl between sliding her hands into the pockets of her blue coat, adding when hearing him snort at her jab, "And anyway, I'm keeping my head down. My brother and his friends aren't exactly popular with the humans who run this place."

He scoffed this time, 'Now I see the resemblance. I don't need a pupsitter, so if you're that preoccupied with your brother then go back; I'm not stopping you.'

"Then since you're so insisting, I'm staying." She scoffed back, watching him stop to scowl up at her, to which she folded her arms complacently and arched a brow in challenge.

The white wolf grumbled slightly and shook his head. 'You're perpetually stubborn…'

"You flatter me…" She chuckled, traipsing at his side when he continued again, folding her arms behind her head. "So, Prince Charming, you got a name?" She asked.

He rolled his eyes at her sarcasm, 'Kiba.'

"Nikki." She nodded slightly.

The odd couple crossed into a small marketplace and while she was virtually invisible in human skin, she couldn't help but catch the fleeting looks extended to the wolf at her side. She fought a bristle that raced down her spine and kept a stoic mask in place.

Just keep walking, just keep walking…

The sound of a gun clicking shattered her mantra as they both stiffened in place before turning slightly to look back at the old hunter wielding a shotgun and a black dog at his side, the mutt growling as its clear blue eyes were locked on the duo.

Two wolves in plain sight.

She felt her lip curl in an attempt to bare her fangs before the dog gave a bark as it lunged at them and leapt for the obvious wolf who snarled at it with his teeth bared. "Go…" She started to order him to run.

'Get moving…' He snapped at her heels, making her jump slightly as she dodged his snap, gold meeting blue. 'Now!' He ordered before turning to meet the dog's charge.

She hesitated for a second before turning away to run for the nearest alley and diving in, turning down one corner and then another before the sound of that gun going off erupted in the air and resounded in her sharp ears. She almost stopped in her retreat at hearing the gunshot, looking back at the way she had come; she clicked her tongue and used the side wall for leverage as she kicked off from the wall to hop onto the nearby low roof, landing in a crouch.

The familiar caterwauling of police sirens chased the tension from the morning air, and she straightened to look off at where she could see the red glare of the vehicles arriving to the marketplace below. She shook her head and gave a weary sigh.

"Idiot wolf."

::::x x::::

Standing at the base of the stairs that led to the doors of the police station made her feel the slightest bit intimidated.

Slightest.

Squaring her shoulders she muttered, "You'd better not be dead, you jerk." She started up the stairs.

"And just where are you going?" She froze slightly before looking back at the one who'd spoken only to exhale in relief at meeting the amber eyes of her fellow wolf. "Hige." She smiled at her friend.

The wiry-haired boy returned the smile before placing his hands in the pocket of his yellow hoodie, "Don't tell me ya finally flipped your lid, Nik." He joked.

She rolled her eyes and nodded slightly for him to come with, "Not today am I; I'm here to get someone out." She explained as he came to her side.

He raised both brows in surprise, rubbing his neck, "Cripes, don't tell me it's your brother… I'd have figured that jerk could worm his way out of getting leashed by these guys." He wondered.

"It's not him, but this guy… Well, you'll have to see for yourself. Now come on." She sighed and jogged up the remaining steps; she would admit breaking a prisoner out of the station now felt that much more possible mostly because she wasn't alone anymore.

He groaned slightly in her wake, "Geez… Wait up!" He followed at her heels.

Sneaking in was easy— much to her surprise – as the people working there assumed they were part of the custodian crews, so the fact that the two friends walked to the nearest stairwell exit to follow the scent of wolf that lingered in the otherwise-sterile air made this seem that much easier.

"Come on, Nik, have a little mercy…" Hige panted as she had jogged ahead of him down the second flight of stairs.

Nikki deadpanned as she stopped at the well of the final set of stairs and looked back at him, "It's not like you're that fat, so stop exaggerating… One more flight won't kill ya." She reasoned as she waited for him to reach the well.

Hige shot her a look at seeing her serene smile when he reached the stairwell, wiping his brow of sweat. "You owe me for this, princess." He breathed out.

"Deal." She lightly patted his cheek before turning about to descend the next set of stairs and hearing him follow.

With a relieved Hige in tow, Nikki was first to the room where they were keeping him; both wolves slipped in through one door to find a large cage holding the captive wolf in the center of the spacious room.

"So this is him?" Hige asked curiously as he watched her approach the cage and crouch before the sleeping wolf.

Nikki nodded, momentarily taking note that he looked a wholly different person when he was sleeping… A small smile crept onto her lips. "Yeah." She replied quietly.

Cracking open an eye at hearing and scenting the she-wolf, the white wolf looked up at his visitor. 'You're still here?' He wondered blandly.

Her smile fell at his greeting and her brow gave a twitch. "You're still alive I see." She sniffed back; sarcasm is not your color.

"Nik didn't say you'd screwed up like this." Hige gave a low whistle of surprise as he stepped up to the odd couple, earning a collectively mild look in return; he added as he scritched his head. "I've seen one of our own get caught before, but not this bad!"

Kiba's furry face morphed into a deadpan expression. 'I can get out of here whenever I want to, y'know,' he remarked dryly.

"Then why're you still in there?" Hige refrained from rolling his garnet eyes.

'I just needed a place to rest for a bit, that's all…'

"I'm Hige, nice to meet ya."

'Why're you in here?'

"No reason, I just smelled something interesting and decided to follow my nose. 'Sides, the princess here wasn't about to walk into the lion's den on her own."

'…That's not your true form, why do you hide yourself?'

"So I don't end up in your shoes. People are scared of us, so y'know, if we look like them, they pretty much leave us alone." He shrugged nonchalantly.

His upper lip curled in a mild sense of frustration, 'Living a lie, just to die miserably in this city?'

"Gotta do what you can to survive, right? Keep lookin' like that and you'll be back in no time flat; it draws way too much attention." Hige said innocently.

'Have you given up your pride as a wolf?' Kiba let a growl escape his mouth as he slightly straightened to glare at the tan wolf.

Nikki started to open her mouth when Hige cut across her with a slight scoff, "You're a strange one all right; but that pride doesn't count for much if you're dead, ne?" He smiled wryly at the wolf's sharpened gaze as he absorbed the truth of his words.

Sensing he had calmed, the she-wolf relaxed before jumping slightly when alarms suddenly began going off throughout the building. She stood to her feet to scowl back at the doors and then grumble, "I think that's our cue, boys…" She trailed off when a growl came from the caged wolf and she looked at him with a measure of amazement as he began to bite down on the steel bars to slowly bend them through the force of his jaws.

Bending the bars at a wide enough angle for him to escape, the white wolf slipped out and straightened once he was free; her earlier jab at hiding his true form momentarily rang in his ears and his body stretched and grew until a boy her age with wild brown hair and green eyes stood before her. His sharp eyes didn't miss the slightly-agape expression on her pretty face and a smirk tugged at the corners of his lips. "What is it?" He asked.

"E-eh, I… Nothing." Her ears reddened and she glared at the hint of amusement in his green stare, turning away with a purposeful twist to stride away to the doors. "Move your asses, come on." She ordered gruffly over her shoulder.

Hige suppressed a shudder at hearing how much like a certain gray wolf she sounded, trailing after her with Kiba at his heels. He was briefly surprised the other could hobble so fast, though he'd seen him nearly break steel bars with his teeth, so he supposed one really did learn something new every day.

Nikki kept her gaze lowered when cops passed by them down the corridors, having lifted the folded collar of her coat to hide the lower half of her face, letting Hige lead the way to the nearest exit and she glanced to her right when noting Kiba walked at her side. Her blue gaze lingered on his handsome face for a lingering second before she curtly cut her gaze away when he sought to return the glance, pretending her ears didn't burn again at nearly being caught.

That jerk, who the hell was he to try and woo her with a pretty face? She was an island, damn it, she was strong and confident and sharp…

Idiot wolf.

::::x x::::

She looked up at the moon.

It wasn't like she could touch it, scientifically-speaking, and it wasn't like she could really feel its strength fill her up like if she wasn't under a dome, either.

Humans tried to protect their skies with their inventions when in retrospect it was the devils inside their walls they needed to worry about.

She looked away as she lifted a hand to subconsciously rub her chest where she felt that strange tug earlier on when that word was brought up between the two now-sleeping males.

Paradise.

She looked off to the rest of the decrepit city's buildings, the familiar stinks of this crummy world she had known for the last count of years assailing her nose, yet her mind was caught on her brother and what he would always say if the 'P' word was brought up.

He would think it stupid of her to chase after a make-believe place where their parents probably were, if she knew him well and at this point she did, telling her to grow up and to not believe in such a thing.

Though Tsume couldn't explain the tug she felt at mention of Paradise, and he sure as hell wouldn't dream of following a hotshot wolf off to someplace that didn't exist…

"It's not real… the moonlight I mean." Speak of the devil; she glanced at him as he had probably sensed she was still awake and pretended his piercing stare wasn't digging holes into the side of her head.

She huffed quietly and hugged her knees tighter to her chest. "Thanks for the update. I knew that ever since I started living in this place… Humans don't exactly like natural things anymore." She remarked as she heard him shuffle to his feet to sit with her on the edge of the old water tower they had sought refuge on hours ago. She added when he sat down, "You shouldn't move around so much with that leg."

He rolled his eyes at her comment, "I've done worse. And anyway, if you knew that then why'd you stick around?" He asked as he looked up at the domed sky.

Nikki slightly wrinkled her nose, "It's not like I had a say in it; I was still a pup when we came here."

Kiba glanced at her again as another soft breeze stole past their tower and played with locks of her black hair, and he huffed slightly. "You're pretty stubborn to have done what you did today." Especially for a complete stranger… Though he would admit some part of him was touched by her tenacity towards helping out her fellow wolf. He hadn't seen that in... years.

Heat began to creep up her neck at his observations and she cut her gaze away as she had earlier. "Che, don't act like I did it just to shake my tail at you or anything disgusting like that… I just don't believe in beating the crap out of a guy who looks like he's already been through hell and back." She looked determinedly at a low rooftop of a seedy hotel several rooftops away.

A smirk crept onto his lips at seeing he had obviously left her flustered, and he looked away to hide the smirk. "That's pretty noble for a thief… Though you don't strike me as the teasing type." He mused.

Wait, did he just compliment her…?

She also blinked at his words before she looked at him. "So those namesake teeth are just for show, aren't they?" A cheeky smirk crossed her pretty face as she watched him near-visibly bristle at being caught.

Heat started to color his cheeks and he averted his gaze with a scoff. "Don't flatter yourself… You're still a hot-headed thief." He sniffed.

"And you're just a sweet puppy under that stoic mask." She hummed as she looked away to the rest of the city.

He scowled sorely. "Shut up." His ears tingled when she giggled.

an: and a belated apology for the prologue being so short.. orz. anyway, hope you liked! :)