House Cat [temporarily complete]

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


Isiel backed off instantly, a defensive and disbelieving expression marring his otherwise pretty features. Surely Kiba was just playing with him, but the insinuation made his tail bristle and eyes narrow, \"You\'re kidding me right?\" He demanded, feeling his confidence both surge and wane simultaneously.

\"No,\" the wolf said frankly. \"And if we\'re going to get you trained quickly, you\'re going to learn to listen to what the hell I say or we\'re going to have problems. I don\'t make jokes. I have zero sense of humor when it comes to training.\" He repeated himself slowly and deliberately, \"Get on your knees,\" he drawled, \"And suck, my, cock.\"

Holding back the foulest of little glances Isiel padded towards Kiba and knelt before him. It took a few moments of hesitation before he could bring himself to obey the wolf\'s order, but with an almost clinical detachment he undid the fastenings of his senior\'s trousers and forced himself to remember the hazy sensations of having Dorian do the same to him, letting his memories guide him in such a loathsome task.

Kiba lifted his hands and laced his fingers behind his head, closing his eyes and waiting. He didn\'t appear to be anticipating anything; there was no pleasure in his face, merely relaxation or perhaps the demeanor of one who was bored. He still kept one ear turned to the outside world as the other flicked idly and listened to the boy\'s quickening breaths and heartbeat.

Isiel chose to completely ignore the fact that it was Kiba - practically a complete stranger to whom he was providing this service under the pathetic guise of training - honestly he wasn\'t sure what it could possibly teach him, but immersed himself in it nonetheless. Cautiously at first he curled his fingers round the base of Kiba\'s length and began to lap and lick at it, channeling Dorian\'s confidence when it came to such things as best he could even though he longed to be elsewhere.

Still Kiba remained nonchalant, eyes closed and hands behind his head. His ear stopped flicking as the boy\'s hands and tongue touched him timidly. \"You\'re failing,\" he said simply, no emotion in his voice whatsoever. \"If you think I\'m doing this for pleasure, I\'m not. This is a test, and you\'re failing.\"

Isiel\'s hands withdrew instantly and he glared up at Kiba even though he knew he couldn\'t see him there was an infuriatingly casual expression upon his face that made the young neko want to throttle him, \"I\'m doing what you asked me to.\"

\"No,\" Kiba replied. \"You\'re holding my cock and licking at it. I said suck it. Suck it. I\'m not one for mincing words, and you\'re trying my patience with this backtalk as well. Next time I hear it you\'ll be punished. When I say suck my cock, I want my cock sucked. When I say shoot that man in the heart, I will not accept you shooting him in the skull. When I say your shit has to be piled clockwise on the grass, I mean mother fucking clockwise, you hear me?\"

Isiel\'s furious expression melted away almost instantly and he nodded, looking more lonely than he had since the first moment they met - yet he did as Kiba told him to without question or protest, putting all of his energy into sucking his cock even if it was clear his heart wasn\'t in the task - it resided elsewhere protecting him from breaking down entirely.

The wolf didn\'t harden in the least; he remained limp in Isiel\'s mouth even after he\'d been working at it a few minutes, then finally drew away, putting his hand on the boy\'s head and pushing him so that he landed on his back on the floor. Kiba tucked his cock back into his pants and zipped them up. \"First assignment failed,\" he said flatly. \"You get points for listening to me, but lost way more for actually doing something you didn\'t want to. Do I look like a business associate or somebody who can cause trouble or bring great things to Master? No, I\'m just a lowly wolf. Therefore, there’s no reason for you to suck my cock. If we\'re doing the sexual training, I\'ll tell you ahead of time. Second lesson: get the fuck up. I don\'t care if you hate me. I\'m just here to teach and protect you, not to be your friend. Get up, and listen very well to lesson number three. This is not a trick. From this point on, anything I say you will follow to the letter. I won\'t do the same thing as that first lesson again; when I tell you something, no matter how obscure, no matter how tired you are, no matter what. You\'re to obey it implicitly at all costs. Get me?\"

Isiel got to his feet, hugging his arms around his waist loosely as he stared at the floor as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world right now. Kiba\'s words cut right through him, making the pain from before so vivid he felt physically sick and considered leaving for the first time, but knew that he couldn\'t remove himself from this place while memories of Oriel still remained close to the surface of his tattered heart. Nodding listlessly he couldn\'t decide between feeling hatred towards the wolf or losing himself completely in the misery he\'d tried so hard to suppress.

\"Still want to do this now?\" the wolf offered. \"Last chance. And if you want my advice, I\'d say give yourself a week to get over losing your mother. Not even your Master is back to work today, and he won\'t be for a while.\" He crossed his own arms and waited, listening.

Stopping just short of turning his back on Kiba Isiel murmured something that sounded like a request to wait for the week and took a few tentative steps towards his bed, half-expecting to be reprimanded solely for moving or not speaking up with the confidence he\'d cultivated and which was now waning rapidly once more.


Kiba nodded. \"Wise move,\" he mused. \"So tell me something, before I go back to shadowdom.\" He got up on the window and sat on the sill with one foot indoors and one hanging out the side of the estate. \"Was my brother happy here? I haven\'t been here in almost a year, and I don\'t get to speak with him much. He didn\'t even know we shared the same father. Was he happy, last you knew? Tell me the truth.\"

Isiel sat down on the bed heavily, still refusing to look at Kiba and let himself fall onto his side before murmuring, \".....who?\" He wasn\'t sure if this was another test or a genuine question and honestly didn\'t care.

\"Use your goddamn head,\" the wolf sighed. \"Only four people died here recently. Which one of those would I expect you to have intimate knowledge about, you think? Oriel, shit-for-brains. Christ. How are you still alive? I\'m surprised you didn\'t ignore somebody\'s warning not to breathe underwater and drown.\"

Isiel flinched at Kiba\'s cruel retort and pressed himself down against the mattress, until he began to shiver, \".....he was happy.....at least I think so...\" He whispered hesitantly, sounding more like the scared kitten who\'d been cradled in Oriel\'s arms when he first arrived than anything else - it was clear Kiba\'s approach to training wasn\'t exactly having a good effect.

Silent for a few moments, the wolf tilted his head back and closed his eyes. Finally he murmured, \"Yes, I\'d imagine so. I can hear him in you. You were attached to his teat pretty damn hard.\" He sighed and took out a knife once more, picking under his nails with it idly. \"Look, kid. I\'m not a nice man. I didn\'t get through life and protecting two Masters by being nice. I train others how to become intelligent, strong, quick-witted and careful. I\'m going to be an asshole with you until you learn your place and smarten up. I\'m sure Oriel\'s doting upon you helped heal some of whatever past you\'ve had, but mushy recovery time is over, and there is no alternative but leaving here.\"

He kept his eyes closed while moving on to the second black claw. \"My training will keep you alive, and healthy, and it will make it so that when you do take over this estate, nobody will dare walk all over you, and you\'ll keep this place flourishing. It\'s not tough love; it\'s just tough. I don\'t have anything against you at all; I don\'t even know you. If anything I should be endeared to you as my adopted nephew, but I\'m not allowing myself that, because I have no right. I\'m not being mean just to be mean or because I think you\'re a bad person. It\'s all part of your entrance into maturity and training. When you learn to think quickly, and become a strong man that I\'m willing to bow to, I\'ll call you Master just as I do the one that\'s lying in his bed with fifty seven stitches. Do you understand? I\'m not just being mean for the hell of it. Everything I do with you has a purpose.\"

Although he was nowhere near close to accepting his fate Isiel made a soft, almost incoherent sound of agreement as he curled up, forcing his shaking to gradually subside as he willed himself into a state just beyond sleeping - a self-defense mechanism maybe or just exhaustion finally catching up with him. Tears slid silently down his cheeks and he managed to cry in complete silence, knowing Kiba could not see his face from where he delivered his monologue and cemented Isiel\'s sense of crushing loneliness - if neither his adoptive father or Kiba were to accept him as he was and he had to remain distant to Dorian then who could he ever open up to?

Snide comments rose in Kiba’s throat. He wanted to roll the kid over and smack him a few times… he wanted to tell the kid off for being such a wuss. But, he did neither of those things; for the most part, he didn’t resent Isiel for who he was. Just what he was—what he was going to become.

Clenching his jaw tightly, he moved outside the window onto the little overhang underneath the sill, taking a seat with his back to the wall so that his legs hung over the edge of the eavestrough and the tops of his ears were visible over the edge of the windowsill, should the kid look over to see if he was still there. The cool wind kicked up and he took a deep breath, both trying to calm himself and picking up scents to figure out what was going on outside that the wind could tell him of.

For now, until the real training picked back up, all Kiba was meant to be was a stupid bodyguard. Some days he hated the position, and some days he was thankful for only having to deal with taking a bullet if somebody tried to kill the one he was protecting.

Eventually Isiel\'s body relaxed subtlety and he rolled over onto his back, still hugging his arms loosely around his waist - from the even, if shallow rhythm of his breathing and his closed eyes it appeared he\'d finally been overwhelmed by exhaustion and was finding some temporary shelter in sleep even though he kept shifting and mumbling half-formed names and incoherent sentences as he rested - thankfully it was not enough to rouse him once more and he curled up on his side, facing the open window and inadvertently displaying the tearstains that marred his cheeks even in slumber should the guard care to check upon him.

Meals were brought to the room twice a day, left outside the door. Kiba would enter the bedroom without saying a word to his ward, open the door, sit on the floor and wolf down his meal hungrily, leaving the boy\'s there to be eaten or not and not particularly caring whether he did or not. Hell, if the kid starved himself to death, then Kiba wouldn\'t have to be training the next Master to walk all over him.

On day seven, Kiba entered the bedroom through the window once more, leaving his place on the eavestrough that the nekos had gotten used to seeing him sitting upon while they played outside. He took a seat half in and half outside the bedroom on the sill, a few minutes before Master entered the room without knocking.

Master looked over at Kiba, then over to Isiel, then back to Kiba, giving a firm nod before turning and leaving once more.

That was it, that was the signal; no more leniency for mourning. Training was to begin. \"Up off the bed and eat your lunch. Now,\" Kiba said flatly, unmoving.

Isiel had been grudgingly eating most of his meals, but had also remained in a state between total consciousness and complete apathy towards his surroundings until now. Although he was a little paler than usual the amount of sleep he\'d racked up over the last few days had left him at least able to return to complete alertness the instant Master appeared and when Kiba issued his command he obeyed it without hardly a second thought - already schooling himself to put up with the wolf\'s harsh treatment even if he couldn\'t convince himself to be solely motivated by his own desire not to be discarded yet. Following Kiba\'s instruction to the letter he got up off the bed and finished off the meal in silence.

\"Follow me. And, just to clarify since you have this issue with listening, I mean now, not later.\" Kiba walked across the room and to the door, opening it and leaving it open as he walked down the hall. He was a little annoyed that the boy followed; he was aching to punish Isiel. After a week of this moping he\'d had enough of the boy.

Certainly Kiba loved his brother, but did the stupid neko ever know how to coddle his child. He was half surprised that Isiel knew how to wipe his own ass.

They walked down the hall and stairs, then down the hall on the main floor to the training room. Kiba got up on top of one of the exercise machines, sitting on a weight-lifting bar with perfect, effortless balance as his tail swished back and forth. \"Pick a weapon,\" he said calmly, pointing to the locked glass case against the wall.

Isiel studied the contents of the glass case for a few moments and then turned back to Kiba, hoping a genuine question wasn\'t enough to get him in trouble again, \"I don\'t know how to use any of them so how should I know which ones I even have the potential to become good with?\"

\"I didn\'t ask you to pick one you\'re good with. I asked you to pick one.\" I want to smack this kid. \"Pick whatever the hell you want in there. Something that\'s shiny, something that looks funny, something at random, I don\'t give a fuck. Just pick it.\"

Isiel had a feeling that no matter what he picked it would be the wrong thing so he merely went for the first item that came to hand, barely even looking at it before returning his gaze to Kiba and waiting patiently for whatever reprimand was bound to follow. \".......\"

\"I\'m not psychic, boy. Have you picked one or not? Once you have, get it. That\'s not an indirect order, either. I mean I want to see that weapon in your hands in less than two minutes.\" The wolf ground his teeth together in his mouth as he stared at Isiel. \"One minute fifty five seconds to go.\"

Isiel tried the handle on the case and found it barely turned, let alone offered him access to the weapons within, \"It\'s still locked.\"

The wolf allowed himself to fall heavily off the equipment and onto the floor, holding his face in his hands as he growled low and loud. Through grit teeth and his hands he snarled, \"Do I look fucking blind and dumb to you?! Of course I know it\'s locked! One minute thirty seconds!\"

Isiel scowled covertly and glanced around the room - there was nothing to pick the lock and for someone who\'d been used to jamming a screw driver into locks to get them open he had neither the time nor tools. However there was a small pile of folded towels sat upon the unit beside the weapons cabinet and he took one, covering his fist with it to cushion the blow as he found strength from his anger and frustration and demolished the surprisingly brittle pane so he could remove the weapon he\'d initially seen. Then he waited to be told what he\'d done wrong again.

\"Thank the fucking gods,\" Kiba growled as he sat up, hearing the shatter of glass. He walked onto the training mat and braced his feet, looking down at his own sheathed weapons. Quickly large hands unbuckled the holsters and let the throwing knives and 9mm fall to the floor, kicking them aside though not out of reach, just in case. Always just in case.

\"Fine, a knife,\" he said plainly, looking at the weapon the boy had chosen then lifting his own empty hands and curling his fingers a little, instantly ready. Kiba crouched slightly as all the muscles on his darkly tanned body bunched. \"Come at me. Try to hurt me. If you fuck around or hold back, I\'ll break your arm, Isiel. I\'m not kidding. There is no way in hell you can hurt me; I\'ve been keeping others and myself alive while under constant attack for over thirty years. Attack me, and try to kill me. I don\'t care if you think its wrong or you\'re uncomfortable with it. Do it or you\'ll be punished.\"

Despite Kiba\'s warnings Isiel already understood that there was no way a neko, barely out of kittenhood in this strange set up could injure a trained bodyguard such as Kiba. He had no reservations about attacking the wolf however, finding himself fueled by the anger which bubbled just beneath his surface and yet not letting it show too blatantly as he mirrored Kiba\'s stance, lowering his weight so it was harder to push him of balance and taking a couple of cautious steps towards him, looking for an opening to at least demonstrate that he was trying before he lunged, giving the attack his all.

Kiba easily deflected the attack, landing the kitten facedown on the mats, and hard, though he landed in a way that the knife fell forward and nothing was broken. The wolf took a step back and crouched again. \"That was shit. Do it again. You were good to wait and watch for an opening, but what you lunged for wasn\'t an opening, it was just my chest. Just because it looks open doesn\'t mean it is. Get up and do it again.\"

He looked up as he saw Eiji standing in the doorway, drawn from the silent alarm he knew had gone off as soon as the glass had been shattered. He winked at his Master without Isiel seeing either the wink or Eiji, and waited for the second attack to come with the boy\'s back turned to his audience.

Isiel picked up the knife quickly and returned to where he\'d been previously standing - completely unaware that he was being watched by anyone other than Kiba, a fact which somehow made it easier to accept his pointer and attack once more without distraction or embarrassment. Still keeping his weight down and evenly distributed in a careful imitation of Kiba he paused just long enough to truly study the wolf\'s position and tried again, feigning slightly as if he were going to repeat his former mistake before choosing a completely unrelated spot upon which to target his attack.

A dark smile actually spread across Kiba\'s lips, revealing each jagged tooth in his mouth as he grabbed hold of Isiel\'s wrist and flipped him all the way around this time, landing him on his back as he dropped the knife.

\"Better. At least you learn quickly,\" he growled. \"But you\'re going to have to think beyond first and second level attacks. By the time I\'m done training you, you\'ll know how to look me over, decide what you guess to be my strengths and weaknesses, plan a six-level attack, and how to carry it out, as well as when and where. You will be able to alter or abandon the attack in a split-second and form a new one if you see the first will fail. I want you to be able to outwit me and sink that knife into my gut, you hear me? I want my next scar to be from your blade.\"

He picked up the knife, tossed it once in the air to judge the weight, and took hold of the blade end between two fingers, whipping it at the door as hard as he could.

Master caught it with barely a movement, his face staying exactly the same and not even a hair on his head fluttered as he held his hand up, holding the knife by the blade as well, between two fingers. \"See that?\" Kiba asked, inclining his chin towards their audience. \"And see the scar right under it? He missed my throw once. He\'ll never miss again in his life. Your Master didn\'t have me going easy on him, and neither will you. Nobody can cut him unless he\'s being previously distracted or he\'s willing to take the attack in order to accomplish something else.\"

It couldn\'t exactly have been called praise, but Isiel was glad to have avoided punishment and at least shown Kiba that he had the will to learn how to defend himself even if for now it was purely motivated by the desire to avoid punishment and show Kiba that even if he and Eiji stomped all over the rest of his life he was the one in control of his body in this regard. He was hardly surprised to see Eiji standing in the doorway, but didn\'t quite manage to stifle a soft gasp as he caught the blade effortlessly.

\"Now,\" Kiba said calmly, \"If you think that was impressive you should see us scrap. But for now we\'ll keep with simple tricks, if Master will so oblige.\"

Master said nothing, but when Kiba purposefully turned his back to Eiji, Master lifted his same arm and whipped it through the air, sending the knife flying at blinding speed towards Kiba\'s back. The wolf moved slightly to the side and caught the blade, then kept moving in the same motion and turned back round, whipping the knife at Master again. Once more Master reached out and caught the knife, as Kiba crouched and gathered four throwing knives from his holster between the fingers of his left hand, while lifting the right and catching the blade thrown at him without even looking up. Once more he sent the knife flying, this time along with the four others.

Without any emotion on him whatsoever, Eiji caught three of the blades and sidestepped the last two, which sank into the wall beside him as he closed his eyes and threw the three knives he held before grabbing the two behind him and sending them sailing as well. Kiba closed his eyes too, then grinned wider, showing off his razor-sharp teeth as he caught two knives in one hand and one in the other, then dropped onto his hands and lifted his feet in the air, catching the last two between his toes before flipping forward and landing on his feet once more, at least one blade clutched in each limb.

Kiba looked back over his shoulder at Isiel. \"I taught him most of what he knows. You\'ll be almost as good as him once I\'m through with you; the only thing that will forever hold him above you is experience,\" he said quickly, while tossing the knives at the floor, leaving them embedded in the training mat and releasing the ones in his toes. Then, without warning, he bolted across the large room towards Eiji, who reacted almost instantly, lurching forward and holding out his arms, catching the wolf hand-to-hand for just a heartbeat before they tumbled across the floor.

In less than sixty seconds Kiba was pinned to the floor with both hands held above his head and a knee to his chest, with Eiji looking down at him calmly, expression exactly the same.


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