House Cat [temporarily complete]

c.h.a.p.t.e.r e.l.e.v.e.n


One year, six months, seventeen days later…


Kiba flicked a bone into the bowl of previously picked-clean chicken parts and picked up a wing, growling low as he always did when he ate and tearing at the flesh, blood running down his chin and dripping onto the plate between his parted legs on the floor. His tail swished back and forth slowly as he picked the bones clean and tossed them into the bowl as well and went for the last piece on his plate, the remaining breast.

Dorian made a nauseous noise as he saw Kiba\'s fangs sink into raw flesh and tear it open, meat disappearing into his deadly jagged mouth. \"I\'ll never get used to seeing that. Or hearing it,\" the full-grown black-and-white neko muttered under his breath, letting his tongue roll out of his mouth and gagging a little, turning back to face Isiel at the table. \"At least you eat your food cooked still. I don\'t know that I\'d be quite as eager to kiss you if you didn\'t.\" Dorian was still as sexually charged as ever, but now half of his attentions were turned onto Isiel himself, and the younger neko was also approaching becoming a full-bodied, strong adult neko—hells, he was already the same size as Dorian, and he wasn’t even done growing! …But Dorian still seemed to come out on top sometimes when they wrestled, even though he knew for a fact that Isiel had been trained to be able to rip his friend’s arms off in less than thirty seconds. He got the feeling he was allowed to win.

Isiel\'s lips quirked in a furtive smile as he picked at the remnants of his own dinner, pausing before he replied to his melodramatic friend to finish off the last of the white meat - although Kiba ate as if he were still a wild animal, with gusto and no shame Isiel\'s own delicate approach to food and the cutlery he insisted on using no matter the dish provoked an equally sarcastic, if not malicious response from Dorian in the past. Leaning forward slightly, he whispered, \"And do you care to get between Kiba and his food hm? Somehow I don\'t think a napkin or interruption would be taken too kindly.\" His remark was accompanied by a warm, rare smile that he only spared for Dorian and Kiba.

The wolf tossed the last bone into the bowl and licked his lips, then his hands clean. He knew table manners; he knew every fucking fork and knife and spoon, he knew which glasses to drink from first and he knew polite table conversation. Hells, he\'d been the one to teach Isiel every polite little mannerism he knew but his shyness. That didn\'t mean he chose to abandon the natural instincts in himself and priss himself up. He wasn\'t there to impress anybody; he was there to eat and leave, and that was all. If he was in the presence of Master\'s business partners, maybe he’d eat ‘nicely’.

...If he was in the presence of Master\'s enemies, he\'d make the scene as bloody as possible before grinning at them with his broad saw teeth and letting them know just what sort of fun they\'d be having if they acted up around him.

\"I didn\'t hear you complaining when you sucked my cock last night,\" Kiba said idly while getting up and gathering his bowl and plate, carrying them back to the kitchen.

Dorian frowned and glared at Kiba with a scarlet flush to his cheeks as he clenched his teeth.

Isiel sat back, looking more amused than anything as he placed his knife and fork neatly upon the emptied plate as he\'d be taught to do many months ago. Even though he wasn\'t in the presence of anyone who might perceive it as a negative reflection upon Eiji if he were more casual than usual the manners Kiba had instilled in him had become habit to a certain degree and he found himself adhering to them without giving it a second thought. As Kiba went to the kitchen he merely watched Dorian with a faint imitation of his smile in place, covering the brunt of his feelings even as he silently teased the older neko.

\"Creepy old man,\" Dorian muttered under his breath. \"What is he, forty?\"

\"Thirty-seven,\" the wolf\'s voice said clearly from several rooms down in the kitchen.

Dorian shivered. \"I hate his hearing. WHY DON\'T YOU GO DEAF ALREADY OLD MAN!\"

\"Because I like hearing you moan and mewl for me like a kitten,\" the reply came back just as casually.

The black neko grunted and crossed his arms. \"Don\'t you start!\" he barked at Isiel. \"You haven\'t been put in place as secondary Master of this house yet, you don\'t get to mock me until I have to actually call you \'Master\'!\"

Isiel\'s expression faltered and he turned his face away, trying not to laugh and yet failing miserably - Dorian\'s grumpy reactions to Kiba\'s blunt replies always got the better of him and it was a good few minutes before he found his voice again and stopped chuckling to say in return, \"I\'m not the one who provokes him am I?\"

Kiba returned completely cleaned up, and took a seat on the floor by Isiel\'s legs, never far from the boy and never sitting at the same level as him unless they were both on the floor or training in some fashion. \"I\'m actually young for a wolf,\" he muttered, while lifting a foot and scratching at his ear idly, tilting his head to the side and closing one eye as he got that itch just right. \"I\'d say equivalent to about twelve... almost thirteen now. It\'s a long road ahead before I\'m withering and grey like you two will be.\"

He put his foot down and stretched, then lay down at Isiel\'s feet with a heavy thump on the hardwood, letting his eyes slide shut as he scratched his full belly. He wouldn\'t eat again for another few days. \"Good bird,\" he mumbled sleepily, though he was never a heartbeat away from alert and ready to kill.

The nekos around the house had tried to test him a few times; always trying to scare him or catch him off-guard. All failed.

\"If you really want to, Dorian, I\'ll let you suck my cock again right now,\" he mumbled idly, nestling his head on his arm and relaxing. \"Then you get to suck Isiel\'s.\"

\"Really?\" the black neko declared, sitting up and realizing too late that he was being tormented yet again. He slumped back down with a growl. \"One of these days I\'m going to catch you off-guard and cut off your tongue, old man,\" he snorted.

\"The day anybody can do that is the day I deserve it,\" Kiba yawned, showing off each and every jagged tooth in his mouth with his tongue hanging out, aaaaalmost as if he was taunting Dorian into trying to carry out his oath.

Isiel settled back in the chair, feeling more than a little tired himself after having eaten his fill of the simple, but wholesome meal although he wasn\'t so sleepy that he couldn\'t continue to appreciate how amusing Dorian was when he tried to argue with Kiba. The instances of longing to be more affectionate in such a casual manner with the black and white neko had become ever more frequent since they\'d been able to speak casually with each other and yet he knew there would always be boundaries, maybe only until Eiji accepted him and possibly beyond which frustrated him, quietly nagging at his consciousness when he let it. Absently he tucked a stray strand of dark blonde hair behind his ear and watched Dorian quietly.

When he was done yawning, Kiba sniffed slightly at the air, and his left ear twitched. He remained on the floor, stretched out calmly, but the tip of his tail began to curl and release slowly as it did when he was hunting or anticipating something. \"Oh right,\" Kiba muttered, yawning again as the front door chime sounded. \"I made a phone call last night. I guess I forgot to tell you; he\'s home.\"

\'He\' naturally meant Master. The man had left the same night he\'d fucked Kiba like that in the training room, and hadn\'t returned once in the entire year and a half. When he\'d contacted the house, it had always been to speak to Kiba and Kiba alone, and it was really only to get updates on Isiel\'s progress.

Isiel appeared unfazed by the news of Eiji\'s return and closed his eyes, resting his head to the side slightly for a moment and almost completely obscuring a faint twitch that ran across his cheek, not quite a wince - he couldn\'t help but be affected on some level by the news that his absent Master, adoptive parent in some distant sense had finally come back for reasons unknown. \"I don\'t suppose my presence would be appreciated as a welcome home.\"

\"Actually,\" Kiba said in a musing tone, as if he might be talking to himself and if somebody overheard him, well, that might just be coincidence, \"If I were to guess, I\'d say he\'s expecting to see three fullgrowns who are already lined up as he steps out of his car. Oh, his first foot is on the first step-- as I was saying, I\'d think he\'s expecting three full-growns and the young creature he sent into training to be standing there as they should be. Hmmmmmmm.\"

Opening his eyes suddenly Isiel got to his feet and brushed off any semblance of sleepiness he might have been feeling. Kiba\'s reply sadly overrode his desire to remain with them both and even if he was merely pondering a possibility Isiel could not take the risk of offending Eiji so quickly after his arrival. With a faint sigh he headed for the door, calling back over his shoulder, \"I shall be surprised if he chooses to acknowledge me at all.\" With his bitter sentiment still lingering in the air he shut the door behind him and headed downstairs.

The front door opened as Isiel reached the bottom stair. The three fullgrowns, well trained for this moment and having seen it done so many times by their late elders, stood at attention and waited, alert.

Master appeared much the same for the most part; his hair was a little longer, and there seemed to be more darkness under his eyes, but otherwise he was still dressed in a sharp suit that detailed how broad and muscled his shoulders and chest were, and his expression was exactly the same. His eyes immediately went to Isiel standing at the bottom of the steps, and lingered on the teen for several long moments as he walked through the entrance, past the fullgrowns.

One of the bodyguards closed the doors behind Master as the man paused just before Isiel and turned to look to the side, watching Kiba approach on his hind legs with his thumbs hooked in his pockets casually and an \'I told you so\' look on his face directed at Eiji, who didn\'t say anything for a good few seconds as he stared at the wolf.

Master looked back at Isiel once more, noting how the boy came to the middle of his chest now, and he touched a finger under the boy\'s chin, lifting it a little and turning the face side to side, inspecting. Without a word, when he brought the small chin to facing him once more, Eiji leaned down the rest of the way and touched his lips to Isiel\'s in the same manner he always used to for Oriel.

He drew away and looked down into Isiel’s light gaze once more.

\"Welcome back,\" Kiba said finally, after a long silence with Eiji staring into Isiel\'s face. The wolf wanted to kick his little ward in the shin for being so thoughtless. It wasn\'t Kiba\'s job to do the welcome; had the kid been brain-dead? Surely he\'d seen Oriel do this at least once in their brief time together.


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e.n.d c.h.a.p.t.e.r e.l.e.v.e.n