((Author's Note: There is a short prequal story titled "Wolf Meets Shark" which I recently posted to the site. It depicts some head canon backstory relevant to Lycaon and Ellen Joe. It is not required reading, but I wrote it in hopes that might provide a richer experience when reading this story. :D ))

Belle

Belle, huddled in the staff room, felt her cheeks still hot from the embarrassment of being caught in her panties- and not just any panties, but the hopeful kind of panties. Gah! Well, nothing for it now. Did she have any spare clothing in the staff room on the ground floor? Her eye's roved the room and she didn't see anything. Not unexpected, as she would never have a reason to have a spare pair of pants in the office. Her eyes did notice the big HDD setup that she and Wise used for their sometimes illegal proxy work.

Her house had exploded and there were corpses on the ground again. It was definitely more than the one body two days ago, but she knew that PubSec was surely soon to arrive with all sorts of questions. And, this attack being much bigger, that surely meant… well… bigger questions.

"Wise!" shouted Belle.

"Yeah?" he said, carefully entering the room and shutting the door behind him.

"If PubSec looks at the HDD?"

Wise glanced at the big computer setup. "I got the HIA documents for the Hollow Zero work. We'll be fine. Don't worry."

"And Fairy?"

Wise glanced towards the computer again with a frown. "She's still in shutdown mode. The timer increased itself. I don't know what's up with her."

Belle took a deep breath, mind racing. She didn't know what else to check. Lycaon! Lycaon had probably been through some things like this. He would know what to do. "Wise, can you ask Lycaon to come in here, please?"

Wise blinked. "Lycaon? But your pants…?"

Belle looked down at her bare legs. Once again, she'd forgotten. "I'm not worried about that with him."

Wise cracked a half-surprised grin. "You're not?"

"Wise! Is now really a time to tease me about that?!"

"All right," said Wise. He turned and opened the door.

"Wise!"

"Nicole! Thanks for the resc-" and Wise staggered as a a head of pink hair hit his chest and he was pulled out of the doorway in a hug.

Belle was surprised by the relief and concern shown by Nicole for Wise. Nicole's stock rose in Belle's evaluations immensely at that moment. But their cute reunion left Belle alone in the staff room again.

Without pants.

"Wise!? Can you get me some pants from my room?!" called Belle. "Lycaon?"

Lycaon

When Wise entered the staff office at the calls of Belle, Lycaon was hurriedly going about checking on the groundskeepers. Two were certainly dead. Lycaon could smell it clearly. The last was a bit more of a question, but a closer check of pulse and breath confirmed the same. All three were lost. Lycaon considered them three more failures to his own record, and he began mentally examining all his recent decisions and his earlier precautions- seeking flaws and miscalculations.

What could he have done better? What might have prevented this? Belle was alive, yes, but success always tasted bitter when comrades were lost in the effort.

Lycaon's ear communicator activated to distract him with an inbound call:

"Lycaon?" Rina's voice was as direct as he'd ever heard it. "We are near. Status?"

"Clear. 3 gee-kay lost." said Lycaon suddenly into the Random Play lobby, drawing confused looks from Anby, Wise, and Billy. All of them were standing in the field of bodies that was the destroyed lobby of Random Play. "Downgrade alert, Rina."

"Roger," said Rina, her voice regaining its normal dreaminess. "I'll inform the Handler."

Lycaon sighed. The handler was effectively a regional manager for the Victoria organization. The man handled bad news poorly, so he was grateful for Rina offering to hand in the report. Meanwhile, Nicole Damara and Nekomata entered through the bullet-riddled front door of Random Play, both looking around the video store with concern, eyes drifting to each person.

"Wise? The proxies?" said Nicole with concern.

"Fine," said Anby.

Nicole put a hand to her breast and took a deep breath. Nekomata's mouth curved up into a pleased smile, showing a little fang.

"Thank goodness," said Nicole. Then her face returned to a more business-like neutrality

As Belle's position was well-defended with close allies at the moment, Lycaon stepped outside the front of Random Play to review the scene there. The final soldier was a short distance into the street, bleeding out into the pavement. He'd dragged himself a few more feet from where he'd fallen, leaving behind blood trails, but he'd given up and now seemed immobile- someone had kicked his weapon out of reach. Meanwhile, the overturned armored car sat silently except for the faint poppings of a cooling engine.

The sounds of approaching sirens were echoing distantly off the nearby buildings, so PubSec would soon arrive with medical personnel. The wounded attacker was bleeding but not terribly so. He would survive till the paramedics got to him, and Lycaon wasn't feeling particularly magnanimous towards his foe- so he ignored the man and let him keep bleeding.

Lycaon turned his attention to the balconies across the street. He didn't see any damage, so he wasn't sure how the shooter had been neutralized, but apparently it had been well finessed. And the Miss Nicole Demara accomplished that? Lycaon would have to regard her as more competent than she appeared.

In short order, PubSec arrived and identified Lycaon as caller and provider of information. He gave the responding officers as much information as he knew and they began their business of securing the street and preparing for investigation- the higher ranked officers would arrive eventually. There wasn't much for Lycaon to tell them: he mostly played stupid and simply stated that Random Play was attacked by these unknown people. The actual investigators would ask the same questions again, anyway.

Lycaon's ears radar dished to the sound of rotor blades, and he looked up to spot the rapid approach of a small black helicopter- one of those tiny passenger jobs. It was what amounted to Victoria's fast-response capability, but all of Victoria Housekeeping's strength was in its personnel, so a small vehicle accomplished the task very well.

The chopper hovered respectfully over Random Play, drawing the mildly surprised attention of the PubSec response team. Lycaon saw Ellen Joe leap out onto the remains of Random Play's roof. He glared down at him and rolled her eyes before stalking off out of Lycaon's line of sight- he presumed that Rina had ordered Ellen to overwatch duty and Ellen did not favor it. Though Ellen didn't favor anything that wasn't live combat, so…

Meanwhile, Rina floated down smoothly and the helicopter ascended and banked away, returning sixth street to relative quiet. Lycaon noted that Rina did not look happy- angry even. That mildly alarmed Lycaon. Rina was rarely unhappy. Was it the groundskeepers? Did she know one of them? Was she blaming him for their deaths?

"Von Lycaon!" said Rina, even before she was fully descended. "We need to talk about your Miss Ellen!"

His Miss Ellen? Lycaon sighed, his ears going back slightly, his tail drooping.

Rina was generally an affable mother-like figure to Ellen much as Lycaon functioned as a father, but since Ellen Joe was brought on board with Lycaon to Victoria Housekeeping… Ellen Joe became exclusively his when Rina was upset… and even now, Lycaon could see visible currents of electricity dancing along Rina's sleeves.

Belle

After a bit longer than Belle would have liked, Wise re-entered the staff room.

"Uh.. your room is like.. toast, Belle, sorry," said Wise. "But Nicole thinks you can probably fit into her shirts.. And maybe Anby's pants? Nekomata is going back to get something for you from their compound. It's only two blocks, and it shouldn't take long."

Belle took in a deep breath, feeling cut off from everything that was happening. "That's nice of them, thank them, won't you? And will you get Lycaon? He hasn't come in yet."

"Yeah, some more of his people arrived. He was talking to that milf maid out front a second ago. I'll get him."

Belle fumed at Wise's use of the term 'milf maid' but he was gone before she could scold him. He was really going to get blasted by someone overhearing his little jokes, some day.

After a few moments Lycaon stoically entered the room and shut the door behind him. He looked dusty but otherwise unharmed, thank goodness. He looked down at her intently, clearly in work mode.

"The area seems secure. We may mildly relax for the moment; but this was a significant attack, Lady Belle. Our enemy is clearly not one to take gradual steps."

"What all was there?" said Belle, who had been too scared to really keep track of everything. "What happened?"

Lycaon put his hands behind the small of his back and took the stance of a formal report. "The enemy squad appears to have been four strong. One on a balcony with a view of Random Play, and three others in an armored vehicle nearby. They utilized an anti-tank weapon initially to penetrate your bedroom and followed up with an anti-personnel heavy explosive- a relatively common tactic amongst mercenaries, terrorists, and rebels in the Outer Rim.'

"Then, (and I postulate now, Lady Belle) the remaining three attackers were waiting nearby to respond to your movements as indicated by their man on the balcony. Apparently, they did not have enough manpower to cover both sides of the building simultaneously. This seems to indicate a budget operation. Yet I also overheard them concerning themselves unduly about my position specifically, which means they have intel on myself, which should not be easy to attain. But regardless, they seemed hesitant to divide their forces, as a result.'

"If I may say so with as much humility as I may, I believe they overestimated my capabilities and that contributed to significant tactical mistakes during their attack. If anything, it made them hasty, which caused them to wreck their vehicle and provide me time to secure you in this room.'

"Overestimated your capabilities…?" parroted Belle, who realized she had survived this attack without so much as a literal scratch thanks to Lycaon- and she wasn't even wearing pants.

"How good are you, Lycaon?"

Lycaon's ears went back in dismay and his tail twitched. "I do not know how to answer that question, Lady Belle. We stand now in clear evidence of my inadequacy."

"What? I'm alive, aren't I? Has anyone ever even died under your watch?"

Lycaon took a deep breath, his ears still flat. "Y- yes, Lady Belle, I failed two clients, I am shamed to say."

That surprised Belle. And made her slightly uneasy. "Out of how many? How many attacks?"

Lycaon blinked, looking thoughtful. "I am unsure. Around a hundred, I believe. I could quickly attain an official transcript from my headquarters for you to review."

Two clients lost in over 100 attacks. So Lycaon's success rate exceeded 98%, give or take. Could one actually ask for more? Belle didn't think so.

"No, I don't need your transcript, Lycaon…" But Belle's mind was so full of questions she barely comprehended Lycaon's explanation of the attack. "But what happens now? This is kinda my first time, Lycaon, to uh… be attacked."

He blinked. "Ah, of course, Lady Belle. PubSec is already securing the scene and higher-ranking investigators are likely enroute. The destroyed building will clearly indicate that the perpetrators of this attack utilized military-grade weaponry, and so the PubSec investigators will be obligated to escalate the incident to government agencies. This is rather rare in my experience, Lady Belle. Your enemy possesses uncommon resources."

"Gee, great," But all in all, that didn't seem too farfetched to Belle. The police would come and refer the situation to the Feds. Reasonable enough. Happened in movies all the time. But if the Fed got involved…

"Qingyi? Will she try to cover it up?"

Lycaon frowned thoughtfully. "Possible. I admit, I do not have a full grasp of Qingyi's level of authority in the government. She operates with significant autonomy, but she is also embedded in a very low-ranking PubSec position. I fear I cannot accurately predict her involvement, her influence, or her future actions; but I am sure she will want to take control of this situation. And we should consider that this attack may well threaten her position in some way."

"Really? How? Why?"

Lycaon looked thoughtful. "While I am not an expert, I would say it is because government agents are supposed to prevent negative events, so when negative events occur, a failure must have occurred and blame must be placed on someone. And you are Miss Qingyi's project."

Qingyi's project. Belle mused on the idea. Qingyi was a question mark, but the little woman wanted Belle to remain alive, and that made her an ally in Belle's book. If Qinqyi's position should weaken, that was obviously a problem, but if was anything but obvious how that would directly impact Belle.

"It is fortunate your allies were nearby, Lady Belle," said Lycaon into the lengthening silence. "It was they who turned the tide."

Belle blinked out of her reverie. "Huh? You mean the Cunning Hares? Yeah, I'm glad they came so quickly when you called."

"No, it was not I," said Lycaon. "It was the providence of your brother's generosity: Lord Wise had thought to host dinner due to the presence of the workmen, and so extended invitations to the Hares as a encore of our previous informal group dinner. Our reinforcements were almost here before we even knew of our own imminent need."

Belle took a deep breath. "So: Nicole's crew really saved us, did they?"

"Yes," said Lycaon. "I fear I was inadequate to the task, myself. And so: if you feel it appropriate to seek my replacement, I would recommend a few choice agents whom-"

Belle blinked. What was he getting on about all of a sudden? "Replacement!? I'm not going to replace you!"

Lycaon paused. "But, if you do consider that I am an inadequate match for your needs… there are a number-"

Suddenly, Belle wasn't sure they were talking about what they were talking about. Either way, Belle didn't want to hear it: "No, Lycaon. I won't consider it. I won't replace you. What are you getting on about?!"

Lycaon looked at her quietly. He seemed to be trying to frame his next words.

Belle began to wonder if he was trying to say something to her. But now? Already? After what they'd just shared in the dark of her bedroom? And after Lycaon had then saved her life again- And Wise's!

What? Was Lycaon trying to say that this was a fair trade for the sex? And that hadn't even been real sex! Not really!

Disappointment and confusion swirled through Belle's chest. "D- do you want me to pick someone else? Lycaon? Are you trying to say you want to leave?"

Lycaon's ears went flat onto his head and he grimaced in the thiren way. "No! I do not wish that..."

"Then- then what are we even talking about?!"

Belle felt such a combination of exhaustion and fury simultaneously that she couldn't quite process it, like a swirl of oil and water that could not combine. Weren't bullets and explosions and people dying enough? Did she have the parse this… this.. relationship/infatuation… or whatever it was between her and Lycaon- right now?! Too?!

Belle felt her eyes wince up with the pain of imminent tears as she became overwhelmed with it. She began sinking to her knees for lack of will to move to a seat, but before she could get halfway down to the floor, Lycaon had her in his grip- settling her gently to his bent knee. His ears were back and his eyes wide with concern. Belle could hear his tail swishing.

"Lady Belle," he closed his eyes for a moment and reopened them. "Belle. I apologize, but I was worried of your opinion. I did not foil the attack. My people died. I am a failure and you deserve perfection. That is why-"

"Shut up, Lycaon," Belle's watering eyes blurred Lycaon's face, but she could still make out his look of quiet surprise. She wanted to temper that statement, so she leaned in to lightly kiss Lycaon's nose, causing his ears to pop up straight and rigid. "I know what I deserve, Lycaon. You don't decide that for me. And I don't think anyone but you could have gotten me out of all that just now. So… thank you. Stay with me, okay? If you want to?"

Lycaon's single visible eye flickered between looking at both her eyes and Lycaon's ears began to go back. He seemed unsure of what to say. He leaned in and gently licked a tear trail off the side of Belle's face.

Belle laughed haltingly, a new lightness chasing away the weight that had developed behind her forehead.

"Hey… Lycaon…." said an irritated female voice.

Both Lycaon and Belle turned their heads to see Ellen Joe standing in the doorway, her black maid uniform well-starched and sharp. They'd had been so intent on the other that neither had heard her approach, not even Lycaon. He cleared his throat and gently eased Belle back to her feet, her bare legs sliding off his thighs. He stood to his full height.

"Yes, Miss Ellen? I apologize. I was… seeing to the Lady Belle."

"Uh huh…" said Ellen, her eyes traveling from Belle to Lycaon. "Well, a PubSec lady wants to talk to you. Captain Zoo Yawn. She's out front."

"Thank you, Miss Ellen. I will see her now. Will you maintain the interior while I am away?"

"Fine," said Ellen with a sigh, and while Lycaon exited the room, her red eyes settled back upon Belle and stayed there.

Belle offered Ellen Joe a small smile, still trying to get herself together. She didn't really know Ellen, but had met her briefly two days ago at dinner after the kidnapping mixup. But Ellen Joe simply stared at her in return. If anything, Ellen's expression darkened, slight wrinkles of intensity subtly appearing all around Ellen's red eyes. Finally, her mouth curled back in a small smile- or was it a sneer? Revealing sharp rows of shark teeth.

Belle felt a chill go up her spine and goosebumps broke out over the back of her neck as Ellen Joe left the room without a word, her long shark tail slapping loudly against the door frame. Belle blinked after her.

What-? What was that all about?