key: 'wolf speech' / "human speech"

NAIL II

"…Spotted a wolf just the other day!"

"Oh what is this world coming to…?"

She barely stifled a snort of derision at overhearing the two gossiping hens nearby, glancing at the small dog with them at seeing it cower behind the more upscale woman's legs. She felt her brow twitch at noting a certain wolf was the one scaring the piss out of the little ankle-biter and she lightly whacked the back of his head, lowering her hands back into her coat pockets when he scowled at her. "Scare that little pipsqueak any further and he'll be pissing himself." She chided under her breath as they walked after the tan wolf.

He felt his own brow twitch and he elbowed her, "Like you weren't listening to them too." He returned in the same tone.

Well at least he wasn't walking around in fur again; she rolled her eyes and slightly tilted her chin up. "Beats scaring the hell out of that ankle-biter… I can control myself, compared to you, hotshot." She said coolly, catching the tan wolf leave the busy street after sniffing at cooking hotdogs on the nearest kiosk to turn down the next corner and she strode ahead of the white wolf.

Kiba scowled at her back and his gaze briefly drifted to the defining curve of her hips before he mentally whacked himself for staring; not only was she perpetually stubborn but she was cocky to boot… He strode after her leave and entered the small alley as Hige tossed him a hotdog that he caught with an expert hand.

"Told ya that noone notices us." Hige said lightly as he tossed the third dog to their female companion.

Nikki caught it and took a bite out of the dog, blinking once when Kiba gave a cautious sniff of the gifted food, smirking wryly behind her hand she wiped her mouth with. "It's not gonna bite your nose off." She sang cheekily before taking another bite of her dog.

Kiba shot another scowl at her before he took a bite and made a face, "This tastes awful…"

Hige and Nikki shared a look before the former huffed, "S' the best you can get around here, though if I see a deer loping by, I'll make sure to catch it for ya." He remarked.

Nikki wiped her hands after popping the last piece into her mouth and chewing, her ears twitching as they heard the familiar caterwauling of sirens several blocks away. Her thoughts drifted to a certain gray wolf and her brow crinkled.

She knew those sirens had gone off the other night because he stole from the nobles, she just knew it was because of him and his crew… For all she knew, he had caught her scent and possibly made a diversion of himself so she could escape.

Though she might be overthinking it.

"…Take them once they're caught?" Kiba's voice pulled her from her thoughts.

Hige shrugged, "The same place they took you I guess."

Kiba nodded and looked at the towering headquarters again, "Sounds perfect; I'll get caught and sneak back in."

Nikki shook her head slightly as she couldn't believe he was thinking what she believed he was thinking. "Hang on a second, you can't be serious! That dog fried your brain." She declared.

"Yeah, what the hell happened to Paradise?" Hige agreed quickly as he was just as surprised as her.

"I'm going back in whether you two agree or not." Kiba stated seriously, continuing, "The scent's coming from inside that building, and the only way to find it is to get back in. You know what's in there, don't you, what they're hiding behind those walls? The Beacon that'll lead us to Paradise."

Hige was first to huff slightly and say, "Well forget it; you'll never get that close to Cheza."

"'Cheza'?" Kiba echoed with a raised brow.

"That's the girl they supposedly made from lunar flowers, from what I've heard." Nikki rubbed her temples with a hand.

Hige added in, "Look, it's locked up tight in that place; even we couldn't get as far as the lab."

Kiba deadpanned, "So why'd you escape with me?"

"For a little excitement I suppose." Hige mused.

"Hige, don't you believe in Paradise too?" Kiba asked.

Hige shook his head slightly, "I'm not goin' back."

Kiba shrugged at his noncompliance, "See you later then." He then left their company to head off down the alley.

Nikki pinched the bridge of her nose with a hand as Hige called after him, and she exhaled. "He's an idiot…" She jogged after his leave. "Oi, hang on!" She called.

Kiba paused slightly when hearing her boot heels clacking lightly on the concrete as she jogged to his side, looking at her. "You knew about that scent too, yet you decided to help me." He pointed out when she came closer.

Nikki huffed slightly, "A blind dog could smell that scent, but I had other priorities at the time so I couldn't waltz off and end up where you did. Besides, do you have any idea how risky it is to go back into that place?"

"It's not like I asked you to help me, did I?" Kiba remarked before continuing.

Nikki huffed and turned her head away with a scowl, exhaling. "Just because I'm a thief doesn't mean I'm as selfish as you think I am." She said as she followed him.

"You sure as hell sound like you're saying otherwise…" He started.

"I'm not doing this to annoy you, Kiba!" She snapped, hands fisting at her sides as she watched him stop to scowl slightly at her, continuing with a slightly curbed tone, "You would be dead now if I didn't stick my nose in, so the least you could do is shut up and hear me out. Just because you feel like you were magically led to this place doesn't mean you need to keep going it alone after you meet others who are just like you… I'm coming with you. There's no doubt in my mind that you obviously need someone who's got more street-smarts, and that's me."

The longer he listened to her he recognized her need to help, for whatever reason he imagined only she knew or lack thereof, and the fact that she was perpetually stubborn didn't leave much room for him to deny her request.

Maybe it wouldn't be too bad…

"... It's kind of hard to argue with someone who's that cocky. Come on." Kiba exhaled slightly, looking at her slightly surprised gaze.

Nikki felt a smile creep onto her features and she nodded, letting him lead again and she traipsed along at his right. "Y'know, you're cute when you admit I'm right." She said cheekily.

Kiba noted her smile before he smirked wryly, "Don't flatter yourself, princess."

::::x x::::

The man sneered, "Come on baby, why so cold…?"

Pow.

"Sorry baby, but you are definitely not my type." She cracked her knuckles as the sleaze reeled away with his tail between his legs and his bleeding nose in his hands; she glowered at the possible repeats that stiffened under her stare before they kept to their places. She snorted softly and then shuffled to retake her seat at her companion's right.

He caught the slight crimson staining her knuckles and he couldn't fight the sense of reverence towards watching her defend herself like the stonewall she was. "Point proven." He mused quietly.

She pulled her coat collar up to protect her neck from the slight draft in the cell, huffing at his words. "Jackasses normally aren't worth my time, he just annoyed me." She said in the same tone.

Kiba opened an eye at her tomboyish response. "You're an island, aren't you?" He wondered.

Nikki's ear twitched and she looked at him, "Got a problem with it?" She asked in a slightly-lower tone.

"Nope; I think it's interesting to see you're not one to tuck in her tail and knuckle under." A week ago he would never think he would meet a she-wolf that was as perpetually stubborn as her, let alone accept her help in a 'risky' mission, yet here he was.

Maybe, just maybe, she would make this journey a little lighter.

"If you're done gawking, you can return to earth now." She said as she waved a hand infront of his face when seeing he had slipped into his thoughts.

He blinked at her hand waving in his face and he reflexively grabbed her wrist to lower her hand, "Very funny…" He made a face.

She laughed a little before noticing he had yet to release her wrist and she cleared her throat as she gingerly retrieved her arm from his grasp. "I thought it was." She remarked coolly.

Kiba noted the heat stubbornly creeping into her cheekbones and he huffed. "There's not that many… girls, like you, to be honest. From what I imagine, anyway." He mused more to himself.

Nikki looked away as her cheeks warmed and she sniffed, "Well maybe I'm just a rare breed."

"Must be, otherwise there'd be less of us to go around if all girls were like you… Ow!" Kiba winced slightly when she slugged him, rubbing his arm gingerly. "It's still healing." He grumbled as he shot her a look.

"Then don't mouth off like an idiot, hotshot." Nikki returned with a serene smile when his green eyes dug into her skull, complacently folding her arms at her chest.

"Well it's good to see you two haven't killed each other yet." Both wolves looked as the cell was opened to let in another batch of prisoners with a certain tan wolf amongst them.

"Hige?" Nikki blinked.

Kiba chimed in, "What in the world are you doing here?"

Hige plonked down at Nikki's right and smiled convincingly, "Come on, what're friends for, right?"

The odd couple shared a look before answering in chorus, "That sounds fishy coming from you."

The pudgy wolf sulked. "Some friends!"

::::x x::::

Searing flames swirled around the wolf pup that ran.

This was once her home, her pack lived here, and now… Now they were dead.

A shrill beeping noise filled her ears and the pup gave a yelp of pain at the noise…

She sat up with a slight gasp, her shoulders shaking as her widened blue eyes looked at her dark surroundings to slowly recall that she was no longer a pup and that she wasn't in any danger.

But despite this she felt a shift in the air as something rank that made her hackles rise seemed to permeate the air…

Something was up.

"Something's about to happen…" His voice made her slightly jump before she looked over at him to find he too was awake.

He glanced at him, "You wanna bail then?"

"Let's." She nodded as she shuffled out from the blanket she and the white wolf had shared as he did the same, looking at the tan wolf as he tapped the white wolf's shoulder when the lattermost sought to bend the bars like he had done the other day and withdrew the key from his hair. She smiled and lightly slapped him on the back as the white wolf took the key to open the door so they could escape.

The trio booked it down one corridor and another and another until they heard approaching footsteps when coming into a small corridor with a ventilation shaft on the left wall.

Kiba opened the vent with ease and looked at his companions. "Ladies first." He nodded to her.

"Like hell, for all I know you two morons will have the glorious opportunity of staring at my…" Nikki started to protest before giving an involuntary squeak when he hoisted her up to crawl into the vent. "Jerk!" She hissed before the two joined her with Hige closing the vent behind their entrance, leading the way along the ventilation tunnels.

Blessedly they didn't linger long in the vent system and it took a sharp kick from Nikki to pop the vent open so they could exit the building. She looked about the otherwise-dark alley they had ended up in as Hige and Kiba shortly followed her descent, looking at Kiba and following him as he led the way down the alley at top speed with Hige at her side.

The trio skidded to a halt when coming across a thin bridge overhead that was illuminated by fluorescents, three sets of eyes looking at the lone figure that had chosen that moment to cross the bridge.

The figure was coated from head to toe in black with only a white masque shielding their face and a strange feather-adorned hat on their head with their eyes hidden in shadow. A girl was being carried in their arms, pale as moonlight with pink hair from what she could see.

This stench… This was a noble!

"Wolves." The trio slightly winced at being recognized even while disguised as humans, looking up at the figure in black who spoke in a low voice. "You have my gratitude, for it was you who awoke her… The Flower Maiden is mine." He stated.

"'The Maiden'?" Kiba murmured aloud.

Hige gaped, "That's Cheza…?"

A loud whirring sounded then as the nobleman lifted the girl up and forced her to awaken by grabbing onto the back of her head of hair.

"Take your hands off her!" Nikki snarled between her fangs before wincing when the girl gave an inhuman scream that threatened to burst her sensitive ears, the scream resonating through her very body and making her chest ache as it had the other night when Paradise was mentioned, slightly squinting when the overhead lights of an airship brightened the alley.

"We'll meet in Paradise… If we meet again that is." The man drawled as the light only shined brighter around him and he began to depart.

Kiba rushed for the bridge and would've made the jump if a black ball of fur didn't latch onto his back from behind and knock them both down. He rolled onto his back and growled before meeting the silver glare of the she-wolf. "Nikki let me go…!" He snapped.

"Dumbass, what good could you do? He's already gone!" Nikki shouted back as she made him look up above to see the lights had died down around them, looking down at him as her shoulders still shook a little from the whirl her mind had experienced regarding her bad memories and the nobleman's untimely win against them.

Kiba could swear he saw mistiness in her striking silver eyes that slowly shifted back to that sky blue color, and he quieted slightly. "You okay?" He asked quietly, perking her ears.

Nikki nodded and hastily got off him, straightening out her coat and huffing as she turned her gaze away. "Yeah, perfectly peachy. We've got to get out of here and fast." She looked at Hige who had recovered from covering his ears from that girl's scream.

Hige nodded as the white wolf straightened behind her, looking away as he caught whiff of sewage and wrinkled his nose. "C'mon, let's move." He led the way to the nearest manhole at a jog.

an: ok so i lied, i said 'updated weekly', when in retrospect i had another chapter waiting for publication in my file folder, so ta-da! hope you guys like, and a small s/o to Kirei Ao Tori for the first follow on this fic. thanks svm love :)) anyway, more drama next week so stay tuned!