House Cat [temporarily complete]

c.h.a.p.t.e.r s.i.x.t.e.e.n


Dorian wanted to sleep, but he knew it wasn\'t a good idea. The backyard was an oft frequented place on the estate for the younger flock of nekos to come play between studying and chores, and young nekos like to ask questions. After ten minutes of comfortable silence and lying perfectly still, eyes closed and images of Eiji swirling in his mind, Dorian sat up and stretched, swiping his fingers along his stomach and tasting them idly, lapping at their mixed seed and purring.

\"You\'re the only full-grown I know that can still mewl,\" Kiba commented casually, startling Dorian as he looked over his shoulder and saw the wolf sitting on the steps to the house idly, picking at his teeth with one of his daggers.

Isiel was curled up on his side and appeared to have fallen into a light doze in the time since Dorian last spoke to him if anyone cared to look - he was so worn out by their frantic activities that he barely even stirred more than a purry little miaow as Kiba piped up from where he was sitting to address Dorian. The grass was such a comfy place to rest that given the chance he\'d have slept there all day.

Kiba\'s gaze wandered over to Isiel, and he sighed, putting the dagger away and slipping his hands behind his head. \"That wasn\'t true, by the way,\" he commented, making Dorian tense. \"What Dorian said about tails not counting, it wasn\'t true. They do. But, it doesn\'t matter anyhow; you were told to be with whomever you wanted, and now you have.\"

Dorian wanted to hit the wolf right in his vicious little mouth. What was his intention on telling Isiel that right now? It wasn\'t necessary to tell him immediately. Did the wolf have some sort of vendetta against Dorian that he\'d say such a thing to Isiel so soon after their fucking?

Isiel rolled over onto his other side, finally rousing now Kiba\'s words were actually directed at him for a moment he just looked sleepily back at the wolf, doing his best silly kitten impression and then shook his head as the truth breached his lingering grogginess and hit him hard. Instantly he sat up, his eyes flickering between the wolf and Dorian until they finally fixed upon the other neko and he whispered, \"....you lied to me...?\"

\"It doesn\'t matter, like Kiba said,\" Dorian murmured, looking at his dripping stomach rather than into Isiel\'s eyes. \"Nobody is going to get mad at you, and you enjoyed it, right? Even if you weren\'t allowed, so what? It\'s just a tail, it\'s not like you actually put your dick in me, heaven forbid. Shit, I mean, never mind all that-- it\'s not fair to you and it\'s not fair to me that he\'s treated you like this all these years, Isiel!\"

Kiba\'s ear flicked as he heard the anger in Dorian\'s voice, but he didn\'t move nor did he look at the quarreling couple.

\"It\'s cruel to leave you untouched for two fucking years, therefore preventing you from being able to have sex like a normal teenaged boy!\" the black full-grown snapped, finally looking Isiel in the face.

Isiel stared back at Dorian in disbelief, feeling his heart begin to race as a mixture of betrayal and anger bubbled up inside him and manifested so suddenly that Dorian would have no chance to counter before he hand lashed out and slapped him hard across the cheek, \"Heaven forbid??....you lied and you weren\'t even thinking about me at all were you?\" He demanded, getting to his feet quickly, \"If all it was was pity then I\'d rather you\'d just left me alone.\"

His eyes went wide at the slap, and Dorian growled immediately, razor-thin slit pupils flicking over to Isiel as he stood as well.

All of the feelings he\'d been bottling up inside for all this time came flooding out, the last straw being the slap and the way Isiel dared to speak to him.

\"You\'re right,\" the black neko barked. \"I wasn\'t thinking of you. I was thinking of Master as you touched me, as you kissed me, as you held me. You want to know the truth, Isiel? The only reason I played with you, or any of the others played with you when you were little was because we knew you were the key to being as close to Master as possible. I prayed every day for the hour he fucked you, just so I could snatch you when you came out of that room and taste his seed from your body. And I\'ve hated, hated you for the way he looks at you, and the way he treats you special. Well you\'re not special! You\'re just the same as I am, a stupid fucking cat, and yet he lets you sleep in his room, and he lets you treat him like shit, and he lets you reject him, without even once telling you to get out!\"

Dorian fisted his hands, unable to stop himself as a lot more than intended came rolling out of his mouth. \"I hate your prissy little attitude and the timid way you jerk him around! I hate when I hear Kiba on the phone and the only questions Master asks are about you! I hate that you get to inherit his wealth and become a Master just because you were pulled out of some fucking cage! We all hate you, everyone hates you, but I hate you the most! You\'re nothing, you\'re worthless, you don\'t deserve to be his, I do! I\'m the one that loves him and has always loved him, I\'m the one that would do anything for him, and yet it\'s you who has him, you with your angst and your fears about him, you! I hate you!\"

Isiel listened in complete silence, feeling each and every word cut through him as vividly as if they were knives slicing his skin and when finally Dorian\'s truthful tirade was ended he remained frozen in place a look of pure, quiet shock and horror mingling upon his rapidly paling face. Yet he did not bow his head in shame or retort with the anger which had so swiftly left him when he felt the first, deepest wound being inflicted. And without so much as a sigh he turned away from them both and began walking away upon legs which seemed reluctant to bear his weight. Dorian\'s hatred, so well concealed and now on display for all to see echoed in his head over and over like some horrible taunt. He\'d always been worthless to them all and now thanks to Dorian\'s lies and his own naivety he was no longer fit for even Eiji.

Dorian shuddered as Isiel turned away, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head. \"Isiel!\" he called weakly. \"I didn\'t mean it! I just get jealous sometimes. I\'m sorry. Isiel... come back?\"

Hot tears stung in his eyes. When he\'d said those things, he\'d meant them. At several points in his life he\'d truly hated Isiel, but for the most part he liked the neko-- loved him even. But he didn\'t hate him always; he regretted letting his feelings get the best of him and he smeared away the tears in his eyes as he ran after the boy. \"Isiel, stop! I said I\'m sorry! I lost my temper, ok? I\'m sorry!\"

Isiel kept right on walking as if he hadn\'t even heard Dorian - indeed he\'d been shocked so violently that the realization that they all loathed him had consumed all his senses and left him shambling like a mindless zombie to some unknown destination as he tried desperately not to break down where anyone would see, maintaining that restraint that Kiba had instilled in him even though each step seemed like a miniature struggle.

Kiba sighed, getting up slowly and stretching his tired old bones a bit before yawning with his tongue out. \"Kitten Drama,\" he mumbled sleepily, before shaking his head, mane and ears, then jumping onto the stair rail and then the overhang, bounding up to the nearest balcony for the second floor and moving across it casually, jumping to the next one, heading from balcony to balcony at the same pace as Isiel walked, keeping pace with him and waiting for him to stop and cry somewhere as expected.

He\'d been wondering for a while now when Dorian\'s jealousy would get the best of him, though he hadn\'t expected it to be that... hm. Explosive? The wolf wondered idly if this would shatter the friendship between Dorian and Isiel. For a while there with Master gone Dorian had been doing better, turning his affections towards Isiel as replacement for Eiji, but it seemed that the sought-after man himself coming home had been the rekindling Dorian shouldn\'t have given in to while Isiel was struggling with his position between himself and Eiji.

Bad timing all around. Kiba smirked. He wondered, idly, if he\'d ever snap like that and tell Isiel everything to his face as well. ...Though, he was fairly sure he\'d keep out the lies. Dorian had been exaggerating by far when he said everyone hated the little blonde neko; at worst, one or two disliked Isiel, and some were jealous of him. He doubted Dorian himself even hated the appointed heir.

Eventually Isiel came to a halt in a more secluded area of the grounds and sat down heavily, as if he were just letting his legs give up their fight. In the dappled shade provided by the trees canopied above him he lay back and gazed up at the patches of bright cyan sky beyond the overlapping branches. His heart felt as if it were about to crumble, broken so completely by Dorian\'s outburst that he wasn\'t sure when he would be able to get up, let alone return to the house to face all those he now knew hated him and see Eiji - his master who believed he was still pure when he\'d been tainted by his feelings for someone who couldn\'t have cared less for him. With a shaken sigh he reached up, swiping away silent tears as they rolled down his cheeks, darkening the earth beneath him - yet they remained brief, like a guilty release and then he lay still once more.

When he saw Isiel running into the garden, Dorian stopped and growled, then swiped at a nearby tree with a roar. He was angry with himself, with Eiji, with Isiel... with the world, and how everything always worked out so that things were alright, but never what he wanted. Getting down on all fours, he ran back towards the estate, and into the house. The black neko scrambled down the hall and into his room, slamming the door shut and locking it before grabbing the nearest ornament hanging from the wall and throwing it to the floor with the shatter of glass.

Kiba watched as Isiel progressed through the garden, and he clenched his jaw a little when he saw where the boy was going. When Isiel stopped, the wolf was already in the tree Kiba had known the boy would sit under. He lay down on a branch a little ways up and out of noticeable view, his tail hanging down and swaying back and forth slowly as he watched Isiel settle beside Oriel\'s grave.

This wasn\'t his business; he had no right to say anything, though he wanted to. For now the wolf kept his mouth shut as he lay in the branches of the weeping willow, one ear trained towards the estate and one down to listen to Isiel.

Isiel remained just beyond Oriel\'s final resting place for a long time, letting the sun dip lower and lower in the sky as he lost himself once more in contemplation and cried a little more, so discreetly that only one as observant as Kiba would even notice as he sniffled softly and curled up on his side, facing the grave and trying to feel that maybe some lingering of Oriel still remained in the beautiful garden where he\'d been laid to rest. Eventually he sat up, shaking the numbness from his limbs carefully and a tentative expression formed upon his face, a smile which was so fragile the slightest breeze could have stolen it away which he fixed in place with determination and got to his feet, bracing himself for returning to the house.

Kiba opened his mouth as he saw the boy stand, then closed it again. He grunted. He didn\'t want to say anything, but he knew that a lot of things he didn\'t feel like listening to were going to happen if he didn\'t. Sighing, he dropped from the tree, kissed his fingertips and pressed them respectively to Oriel\'s resting place, and caught up to the boy on foot as he made the first turn on the garden path.

\"It wasn\'t true, what he said,\" the wolf muttered, hooking a thumb in his knife holster. \"He was just angry; when he said everyone hates you, it wasn\'t true.\"

No longer surprised by Kiba\'s random appearances Isiel merely slowed down slightly and gave him that same delicate smile as they walked, but didn\'t say a word beyond, \"It\'s alright.\" as a gesture of appreciation for Kiba\'s concern. His face was still pale and a little grubby, but otherwise he looked as he should physically.

He shrugged inwardly. He\'d said his two cents, and the boy had heard but he didn\'t know if Isiel was actually listening or not. Kiba fell silent and continued to walk a few steps behind Isiel, eyebrows arched and body ever on the ready for anything to happen.

Isiel carried on back towards the house with a little more purpose than his earlier shuffled efforts had achieved and didn\'t attempt to engage Kiba in any further conversation - whether out of consideration for the wolf or because he was too busy thinking about other things. As they approached the courtyard once more he paused, gazing at the door that led back inside, \"........\"

After a few minutes of deliberation he continued inside, ignoring Kiba for the most part as he headed for his room - as they passed by Dorian\'s door he faltered once more, his ears pricking up and glanced back. But he couldn\'t force himself to linger any longer and retreated to the safety of his room, shutting the door a lot more loudly than he\'d intended.

\"Ow,\" the wolf muttered, his ears flicking back, sensitive to the sound of a door slamming in front of him. He opened the window beside him and walked out onto the siding calmly, trotting across it until he came to Isiel\'s window and the overhang just beneath it. He stepped onto the overhang and took a seat, leaning back with his head resting against the lip of the window and his ears peeking out over the sill, as he always did when Isiel needed privacy.

Lifting his leg, he wrapped an arm around it and reached for one of his throwing knives, drawing it out and spinning it by the hole in the handle. He spun it on his index finger, then brought it to a stop between finger and thumb, lifting it up and closing one eye, holding the knife to the sky and positioning it in front of the sun, checking the blade for any misshapen ridges or dents. Upon seeing none, he slid it back into the holster and removed another, doing the same thing, inspecting all his weapons idly as he always did when he was mildly annoyed.

Isiel focused upon the mundane task of washing the smudges of dirt and grass stains from his body before grooming himself a little as a welcome distraction. Eventually, after he\'d tidied up and everything in his room was as it should have been he lay down upon his bed, only to find himself getting up a few minutes later - rendered restless now that his period of apathy had waned and sleep didn\'t seem like much of an option. He strayed towards the door several times wondering if he could bring himself to venture out and then meandered back to the open window beneath which he knew Kiba was guarding only to return to his bed and collapse upon it with a soft sigh.

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e.n.d c.h.a.p.t.e.r s.i.x.t.e.e.n