The bonds that hold, For Cazuki

April 6, 2016

Rolling his eyes at the show Hotaru put up for him at the entrance of the bathroom, Raiza's gaze shot to the man's hand when he finally stopped trying to hide it and showed him the damage. Shoulders slumping in relief when he took note that he hadn't hurt the man too badly, Raiza's frustration with himself seemed to trickle to almost nothing. He was a bit annoyed that Hotaru thought he'd miss the fact that he had cut the man, but he supposed it couldn't be helped. He doubted that Hotaru would be the one to openly admit when he was hurt either physically or mentally....After all, he was turning out to be so much like Kinoue.

Following Hotaru to the kitchenette, Raiza watched the other Inugami open up the first aide kit even as he directed his next words to him. Raiza's eyes instantly narrowed at the words directed at him and he couldn't help but let out an irritated growl. "You can assist me by holding the box, I can take care of the injuries to my body on my own. I don't need your help" he murmured out a response. Jinko's help had been acceptable due to the fact that he was familiar with the medic and he didn't mind the man tending to him when situations were dire. However, anyone else outside his "pack", were not so easily overlooked. More so when they spoke of tending to his neck wound.

Quite honestly, Raiza would only feel mildly comfortable with his pack going near that particular injury, even though the thought of that still had unease crawling up his back. The injury to his neck was something he saw as personal....something he had to live with while it reminded him of his failure. Given a choice, he'd keep the injury for his hands to assess only....even though he knew his pack would never allow that. Especially if they knew that it still pained him as if it were still only a few hours old.

Huffing at Hotaru's words about being squeamish, Raiza simply crossed his arms against his chest and waited. However when the jacket and shirt were stripped off, it took less than a second for Raiza to inhale sharply, ruby eyes to widen in shock and ears to slowly lower in disbelief at the state of the other Inugami's body. Though he appeared perfectly healthy, the scars were alarming to say the least. There were so many and at times, Raiza didn't know where one ended and the other began. Questions swarmed in his head on how the scars had gotten there and just how much pain this man must have suffered through, yet Raiza held his tongue. He knew it wasn't his place to ask and even if he did, he knew he would more than likely get no response whatsoever. Instead, as Hotaru turned around, Raiza allowed his gaze to linger on his own scratches and the largest scar on Hotaru before turning his gaze away silently.

It wouldn't do to stare and he knew it would be rude of him if he did, so Raiza slowly let his arms drop to his sides as he went over to the kit. Grabbing a few bandages and disinfectant, the younger Inugami sank into the chair in front of Hotaru with a minor winch before getting to work.

"This will probably sting a bit" Raiza mumbled softly under his breath as be grabbed a cotton ball between his fingers and dabbed the disinfectant soaked material against the scratches on Hotaru's chest, calmly getting rid of the dry blood. His touch was gentle, a far cry from the coldness of which he spoke with on a normal basis. "I suppose this will serve as a lesson when it comes to trying to pick me up" he remarked dryly after a moment, a very faint his on exasperation coloring his words.

April 6, 2016

The sharp inhalation of breath was quiet, but incredibly obvious considering Hotaru's sharp hearing. He didn't mention it, seeing as doing such would just make Raiza mad again. He let Raiza come forward at his own pace, quietly but intently studying his movements, especially his leg. When Raiza sat down and winced, Hotaru's eyes became concerned and his ears twitched. He, however, wasn't given much time to respond.

"This will probably sting a bit." Hotaru chuckled, giving a smug smile.

"I'm sure I'll be fi- hss" The familiar burning of disinfectant on wounded skin made him hiss slightly. He blushed and raised his uninjured hand, trying to hide his face. "You didn't hear nothin'." he mumbled under his breath.

"I suppose this will serve as a lesson when it comes to trying to pick me up." Hotaru nodded, letting his uninjured hand drop back onto the kitchenette counter.

"Yep, sure does... doesn't mean I won't do it though, admit it, you liked it a little, you could have done way more damage to me if you really hated me doing it that much." The smug smile was back, but faded as he relaxed, letting himself indulge in the gentle feeling of Raiza's hands drifting over his torso and chest, wiping away the dried blood. If only Raiza could be as gentle with his words.

After a while, he opened his eyes, which he had closed to really feel the touch, and looked at Raiza.

"Hey, is your leg alright, you've been limping on it for a while now... You sure you'll be able to stand in the shower alright? I could draw a bath, but considering how tired you looked, I don't want you drowning. I need a shower too, so how 'bout I go take a shower and you take a bath so I make sure you don't fall in and drown?"

April 6, 2016

Feeling a smirk twitch onto his features at the sound the man in pain when Raiza began to dab his wounds, his tail gave a small wag of amusement before falling limp again. For all the toughness this fool seemed to show, he wasn't made of steel and he did feel pain too. A small childish part of Raiza almost wanted to press the soaked cotton ball a bit tighter against the man's scratches, yet the Inugami held himself back. There was a time and place for everything, and that current urge had no place at the present moment. However he didn't stop himself from saying the next words that came to mind.

"Whatever you say, princess. You're little hiss of pain is safe with me" he replied quite a bit smugly himself, the smirk still valiantly holding it's place on his face as he finished with the last of the scratches. There weren't many and thankfully they weren't too deep. He supposed they could have been worse if he had wanted them to be, regardless, these minor wounds had served their purpose and the man felt a little pride in seeing them.

"I don't see why you're so happy with that thought. Though it's true that I could have done more damage, I simply chose not to. It seemed that my minor scratching got me put down, I didn't feel the urge to rip you limb from limb. Next time you try anything that ridiculous again, I'll guarantee that I won't go so easy on you" Raiza replied in a somewhat bored tone. Almost as if he was talking about the weather instead of causing serious bodily harm to the man he was tending to.

Turning his attention on cleaning the cut on Hotaru's finger, Raiza's movements slowly came to an abrupt halt when Hotaru finished talking. Closing his eyes slowly, the Inugami pressed down on his temper and the resurfacing want to land a claw on the man again. He understood that Hotaru was concerned, but cleaning their bodies at the same time.....that was ridiculous.....yet it would save them time. Even if he didn't want to admit it.

Removing his touch from Hotaru, Raiza stood up slowly, ever mindful of the pain originating from his left flank and going down to his left ankle. He supposed his quick movements when he had awoken might have irritated his healing wounds, which would be why the pain was more present now. However, as it was, he tried not to pay it much mind.

Tossing the dirty supplies into the garbage, Raiza turned and headed for the bathroom. "My leg is fine, you do not need to concern yourself over it. As it is, I can handle my own weight just fine should I need to. Nevertheless your suggestion would save us some time, I suppose, and you wounds still need to get bandaged. So hurry up, I'd rather not wait too long to get clean" he called over his shoulder with a dismissing twitch of his ears.

April 6, 2016

"Whatever you say, princess. You're little hiss of pain is safe with me."

Hotaru couldn't resist a good-natured growl at that. He mirrored Raiza's smirk with his own. So, the young Inugami could smile?

"Oh, please forgive me, m'lord." He said in a dramatic voice, placing the back of his uninjured hand on his forehead in a mock fainting pose.

"I don't see why you're so happy with that thought. Though it's true that I could have done more damage, I simply chose not to. It seemed that my minor scratching got me put down, I didn't feel the urge to rip you limb from limb. Next time you try anything that ridiculous again, I'll guarantee that I won't go so easy on you."

"Sure~, m'lord, whatever you say~." Hotaru was having fun now, having banter with Raiza. It felt... natural? Like he was talking to a friend. Before now, except from Academy colleagues and Kinoue, Hotaru hadn't really been friends with anyone. Sure, he liked company, but it was a rare case somebody could actually make him feel like he didn't have to keep the smile all the time. Already, Raiza had broken down a wall or two and while it did slightly disconcert Hotaru about how far the Inugami would unknowingly go into Hotaru's psyche, it also made him genuinely smile. Kinoue had been a good judge of character after all.

Hotaru let his finger be tended too, though he felt having a bandage was maybe a bit too much for the small laceration. He watched as Raiza got up and walked to the bathroom, fully expecting him to just blow him off. Instead...

"My leg is fine, you do not need to concern yourself over it. As it is, I can handle my own weight just fine should I need to. Nevertheless your suggestion would save us some time, I suppose, and your wounds still need to get bandaged. So hurry up, I'd rather not wait too long to get clean."

The comment, thrown so casually over Raiza's shoulder, made Hotaru's brown eyes widen in shock for a moment, before he shook his head and got off the chair, turning off the stew pot that was almost certainly done by now and then turning to follow Raiza.

"Coming! Also, you need to 'bandage' my wounds. It's just a scratch. As you've already seen, I'm quite used to being wounded." He strode towards the bathroom door, again opening it and this time stepping inside. The bathroom was small, yet functional. A bath stood against one tiled wall, a separate shower with misted glass at it's feet. On the other wall stood a sink with a medicine cabinet above it. A toilet stood in a small alcove off the side of the room, covered by a small door for extra privacy. A frosted window looked out over into the city.

Hotaru quickly paced over to the bath, plugging the bottom before turning on a mixture of the hot and cold tap.

"Water here's pretty good. Nice and warm." He swished over to a small rack on the same wall as the window where multiple towels of various sizes were slung over it. "I'll give you a minute." He opened the toilet door, walking inside and shutting it behind him. "Though I'm sure you ain't got something I ain't seen before! I'd rather, however, not be neutered today." He shouted through the door. Meanwhile, he shred the bottom half of his clothing, removing his trousers and pants. His legs were quite muscular, more so than his torso. He wrapped the towel he'd collected around his waist and sat on the toilet, tapping his chin as he waited for an okay sign from Raiza, swishing his tail languidly from side to side.

April 6, 2016

Unable to resist the urge to chuckle at Hotaru's dramatic acting, Raiza shook his head with a hint of exasperation in his motions. Normally, the canine would be stoic faced, finding very little to be actually anywhere close to amusing. It was only when he was around his family unit that he truly let himself lower the guard he kept strictly up. For some reason, even against his better judgement, Raiza couldn't help but want to test the waters with this Inugami. Even if it was by just teasing him lightly, Raiza found himself curious about the other male. Of course, that didn't mean he would let Hotaru know that. If he truly was similar to Kinoue, the man would never let him live it down.

"Whether it's just a scratch or not, it requires bandaging. You're no longer in the academy, you'll be pushed to go places even your time in the streets wouldn't prepare you for. Wounds as small as those can become infected and turn into a problem if left without proper care. That being said, it's going to get wrapped up, one way or another" Raiza responded quite simply. He had had the same mind frame as Hotaru had once upon as time. He had thought nothing of small wounds and found it a bother to have to bandage it. However, Kinoue had gave him the same lecture he had just thrown over his shoulder to Hotaru. Kinoue's had perhaps been in a bit of a softer tone, but the same lecture nonetheless. Small wounds could become infected and that didn't fly in Raiza's book.

Following Hotaru into the bathroom, Raiza looked around curiously as the man buzzed around to get the tub ready and check the towels. When the man disappeared into the space where the toilet was and shouted out after the door had been closed, Raiza didn't bother to hold back an irritated growl. "Wise choice, I'm sure you'd like to plague the world with little versions of yourself one day" he growled out in return even as a blush covered his cheeks in a light pink coating.

Huffing and turning his back to where Hotaru had disappeared, Raiza gently discarded his shirt before going to work in unwrapping the bandages around his torso and arms. Once that was done, the man barely spared a glance at the soiled cloth as he tossed them away into the trash. For a moment, his hands hesitated on their motion to unwrap the bandages around his neck. However, with a deep inhale, Raiza closed his eyes and gently began to unwrap the bandages from the burning wound that had plagued him since that night a month ago. Tossing the bloodied bandages away, barely paying much mind to the hints of still fresh blood on them, Raiza carefully picked up his waterfall of hair and placed it gently over the wound on his neck. Effectively hiding it from view from both Hotaru and himself.

Making quick work of getting rid of his pants and the bandages around his legs, Raiza walked over to the towel rake and calmly picked one out to loosely wrap it around his waist. Bundling his cloths on one corner of the bathroom, the Inugami tested the warmth of the tub even as he called over his shoulder "You may come out now".

April 6, 2016

"Wise choice, I'm sure you'd like to plague the world with little versions of yourself one day."

Hotaru had wanted to respond quickly, saying he sure did, come the right mate. Instead, however, he opened his mouth and no sound came out. Memories swirled in his mind, of foggy faces and smiles. He shook his head.

"... Heck yeah, and I would love them to the stars and back! Unlike you, Mr. Ice King!" He paused. An idea came to his mind. "Hey, Rai... that speech earlier, about my wounds. Kinoue told you that, right? He told me the same thing when he dragged me out... Y'know, when it gets down to it, Rai, you're a nice-" Hotaru had been about to say 'guy' but shut himself up. That seemed to sappy for someone he'd just met that morning. "-kid." He finished, deciding that would take the edge off.

"You may come out now." Hotaru nodded to himself, getting off the toilet and opening the door. He was greeted with Raiza, not in the bath like he'd expected and with a towel covering him. Hotaru moved silently over to the shower, humming a tune to himself as he walked. He opened the shower door with a click, slipping inside, taking off the towel around his waist and throwing it over the top of the door for later use. He turned to the shower controls and grit his teeth in anticipation. He reached out his hand to the control for hot water and turned it. Water spritzed down on his body from above and as it touched his scars, which were overly sensitive to either high or low temperatures, he hissed, banging his hand against the strong glass of the shower. He'd get used to it, but this bit was always the worst. As he slowly began to acclimatise to the temperature, the burning in his scars subsided to a dull, thrumming numbness and he sighed deeply, taking some shampoo off a small shelf and spurting it into his fur, glad to finally be getting that sticky sauce out of his hair.

He began humming louder so he could hear it over the shower, taking gaps to talk to Rai. "Hey, Rai! When we go back tomorrow, supposing Bozo doesn't murder me outright, ya want me to train with you? Director said you should rest a bit and I agree, but the sooner you get that scrawny figure leveled out again the sooner we can go after those Sakame bastards."

April 7, 2016

"There is no point in bringing children into this world to suffer" Raiza responded calmly enough at the man's gib about children. It wasn't that Raiza didn't like kids, heavens knew that he secretly adored them, but in his line of profession....he didn't want children. He knew all to well what it felt like to lose one's parents and be left alone in new world with no one to keep you safe. He knew of the trauma that could cause and he would never wish that on his pups. Raiza knew he could die at any second while working this field and he preferred to be able to leave with a clear mind and not worry about people he left behind.

Bristling when Hotaru called him "kid", the snow pelted Inugami glared over his shoulder at the closed door separating him from the other male. Had he been at full strenght, he would have torn the man a new one physically. As it was, now was not the time for that. No matter how much his pride rebelled at letting Hotaru off unscathed.

Waiting until Hotaru entered the shower, Raiza slowly peeled off his own towel and stepped into the tub, slowly lowering himself into the warm water with a content sigh. Ears twitching sharply at the bang he heard inside the shower, Raiza frowned in momentary concern but did nothing. Hotaru hadn't made any more sounds of distress, so he assumed the man was fine.

Pouring a bit of shampoo from the bottle beside the tub, onto his hand Raiza gently scrubbed it into his hair and ears. He didn't exactly like feeling dirty and he preferred his hair to be silky and smooth instead of slightly rough and matted. Combing his fingers through his hair after lathering in the shampoo, Raiza paid mind to what Hotaru was saying even as he worked the knots out of his pelt.

"That bozo has a name and whether you manage to survive Kotetsu's rage tomorrow is still an uncertain factor of which you should seriously consider" Raiza sighed, exasperation heavy in his voice as he thought about the ridiculous tension between the pair. "As for training me....if whatever class you have been categorized in doesn't work well with a Reaper Class Inugami, then it would be a waste of time" he added after a moment, toying with a particularly difficult knot.

When an Inugami is born and later enters the Academy, they are generally classed into separate categories due to their skills out in the field. Raiza had been categorized as a Reaper Class Inugami right off the bat. His ability to move stealthily in the shadows and seeming vanish in a blink of an eye, was notorious to say the least. He also shared a special gift the Reaper Class was known for...their enemies never saw them coming until it was much too late. Wherever a Reaper Class Inugami went, success was sure to follow. Something Raiza was trying to remember after the devastating failure that had been his first and his absolute last.

Kotetsu was classified in the Berserker Class due to his friend's intense strenght and his impossible pain tolerance. A Berserker could be knocked down time and time again, but the challenge was to keep them down more so than not. And of course, they were also known for their explosive tempers. Something Kotetsu very much had. Inari had been classified as a Blitz type Inugami. They were the few that nearly rivaled the Reaper Class in speed, yet fell a hint short.

The Blitz class usually held members of smaller stature. They could quickly worm their way into even the tightest of spaces, find even the smallest of flaws in an enemy, and slip out of one's grip without so much as a twitch. They were an interesting group, deceptive by appearance but powerful in their own right.....Raiza couldn't help but wonder what category of all the others Hotaru had been placed into now that he was thinking about it.

Remembering the words used to describe him in Hotaru's earlier statement, Raiza released a soft growl while snapping "And I'm not scrawny, furball! I could probably take you on even in my state".

April 16, 2016

"That bozo has a name and whether you manage to survive Kotetsu's rage tomorrow is still an uncertain factor of which you should seriously consider."

Hotaru sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly, letting the warm water slide down his body. He really wasn't looking forward to dealing with that tomorrow.

"Yeah, I know he does... I'll apologize to him." In truth, Hotaru didn't dislike Kotetsu. He just found it difficult to deal with people like that. He wasn't the kind of man to back down from a confrontation and people like that were disposed to causing them. It made for... a complicated relationship.

At the mention of Inugami classes, Hotaru's ears pricked up. He hummed thoughtfully, casting his mind back to the academy classes that talk about the class distinctions. Among the main 'classes' were Berserker, Blitz, Reaper, Bug and Face. The easiest way to mark them was to almost think of them like RPG characters.

The Berserker is normally a cross between a fighter and a tank. In the field, they're the front line heavy-weights with increased strength, dexterity and highly abnormal pain tolerance.

The Blitz is like a scout or a ranger, quick on their feet with traditionally small statures, increased sensitivity of all senses. In the field they slip behind enemy lines to either keep watch of mess up details such as supply lines, communications and back-up.

The Reaper is the assassin. They are just as fast, if not faster, than the Blitz class and while the Blitz class traditionally specializes in either scout work or general destruction, a Reaper is more traditionally aligned with a hybrid of front-line/back-line action. Assassinating commanders or any other dangerous living threat is their forte and apart from their speed and sensitive senses, they have a special talent for slipping into the shadows.

The Bug is like a technical specialist. Bugs can come in a large number of varieties and battle types, but generally are known as hackers or engineers. Bugs can both destroy an enemy's' systems and protect their allies'. Normally they are blessed with genius-level intellect, though they are not as strong or fast as the three primary battle classes.

Finally, the Face is like a diplomat. Traditionally, Faces have very little use in a direct combat scenarios. They are relatively slow and weak compared to the Blitz, Berserker and Reaper. However, they are actually the best class for undercover work. They are blessed with specialised and extremely effective pheromones that can be used, along with negotiation or intimidation skills, to gain information that all the other classes would have difficulty doing. They can often be found working in gangs to keep tabs on leaders or can take more of an obvious role and work as negotiators or interrogators.

Other classes do exist, through these 5 are the main ones. Each classes has many different specializations and sometimes a single Inugami can cross into more than one of the 5 main classes, though this is uncommon due to the breadth of skills encompassed in each class.

Hotaru hummed, rubbing out the final dredges of the shampoo from his pelt.

"You're a Reaper? That's a good coincidence, so am I... well, mostly. Actually, I'm a dual-wielder."

Hotaru's mind flashed back to the nurse, Jinko, from earlier and his comment about Hotaru being a 'genius'. It hadn't just been flattery. Inugami that can be rationally considered to be in two or more of the main classes are officially referred to by the classes they are a combination of. So an Inugami with the skills of a Bug and a Berserker is officially called a 'Bug-Berzerker'. Colloquially, these Inugami are called 'X-Wielders'. The 'X' is normally replaced with the number of classes an Inugami falls into.

"I'm a Reaper-Berzerker."

Despite himself, Hotaru was beaming with pride in the shower, his tail wagging. He still remembered when he'd been told he was a dual-wielders. He knew in his heart or hearts the classification was just that and he refused to let it make him cocky, but he still took pride in the fact he had been placed into such a small group of people. In fact, that was one of the reasons why he'd probably been moved into a specialised unit so soon after graduation.

"So does that mean we can train? I'm sure you know some things the Academy doesn't teach, right?"

He turned the shower control, turning it off and sighing gratefully. He took a deep breath, grabbing the towel from the top of the shower and wrapping it around his waist as he opened the door. It wasn't too cold, due to the bath going at the same time, but the temperature difference was still enough to make Hotaru wince slightly as the cold hit his scars. After a moment, the immediate pain ceased, numbing like it had before. He turned to look at Raiza, smiling before he turned around to the door of the bathroom.

"Take as long as you like, food's ready when you want it." He walked out of the bathroom, going towards his bedroom first to grab a new pair of trousers, these ones looser than the last pair and more comfortable. He sighed, drying himself and pulling them on before going back to the kitchenette counter and patching his scrates from before, admiring them for a short moment among the strokes and blots or the other scars on the canvas of his torso. They would probably stay a little and be another story. He turned on the stew pot again, turning the dial low to just let the stew warm through.

April 19, 2016

"I'm afraid that an apology might not bring the result you would wish for in Kotetsu....Just let me handle him, I know him better than you do. As long as you do not provoke him tomorrow then I might be able to redirect his rage towards you" Raiza sighed in a resigned manner. He knew that Kotetsu didn't hate Hotaru. The black furred Inugami simply didn't like the thought of having Raiza taken from the them again by an unknown individual. Especially after Kinoue had only been dead a month. It had taken the large Inugami several weeks to get used to Kinoue when the man had been first assigned as Raiza's Handler, the snow furred Inugami could only imagine how much longer it would take now with Hotaru. More so when Kinoue had broken his promise to Kotetsu with his death.

Tilting his head to one side when Hotaru's interest was roused by the classifications in Inugami, Raiza's eyes widen when the man proclaimed himself to be a dual - wielder. For a moment, the Inugami could only stare in shock in the direction of the shower while his brain tried to catch up to him again. Though this wasn't the first time he had run into a dual-wielder, Raiza had not expected Hotaru to fall upon that exceedingly small, rare category. If Reapers had begun to be rarer to find in Inugami over the years, dual-wielders were nearly impossible. Especially those who fell into bother the Reaper and Beserker category.

Blinking a few times to get his thoughts back in order, Raiza slowly lowered his gaze back to the bubbly water around as he continued to work the knots out of his long hair. "I would not have imagined you belonged to the dual-wielder category....I suppose that could be deemed as impressive" he mussed softly yet loud enough to be heard over the water in the shower. "I presume it would be possible for us to train together. Though I can assure you that what I may know outside the Academy lessons, was all learned on the streets. You probably know just as much as I do....If not more" the man added after a moment of thought. Raiza didn't strictly stick to the laws of the Academy when in the field. He did what needed to be done to finish a mission, and as long as no one in his team was injured or maimed, then nothing else mattered. Survival of the fittest was something that had followed him from his time running wild and trusting his instincts instead of logical train of thought wasn't something that could be taught easily.

Watching Hotaru step out of the shower from the corner of his eyes, Raiza frowned at the man's subtle winch before his ruby colored eyes dropped once more to the layers of scars adhering the man's torso. Though Raiza couldn't imagine what had brought those all about, he presumed that they could possibly still be painful on occassion. Logically, there was probably nothing that could be done for them, but deep down, it still somewhat bothered the aloof Inugami to see the older male in pain.

Dipping his head in acknowledgement at Hotaru's words, Raiza finished with his hair before finally....finally lifting the curtain of it off his shoulder to look at the reflection of the wound on his neck through the somewhat dirty water under the bubbles produced by the shampoo. Two angry, red puncture wounds marked the spot where sharp fangs had found purchase in his flesh. Just centimeters beyond them were further marks of shorter yet just as sharp teeth that had done a quick job on clamping into the vulnerable part of his neck that night.

However, it didn't stop there. Though it could have been a clean bite wound, Raiza had not simply rolled over and shown his stomach to his enemy. That night he remembered tearing himself free from the bite and now that he was looking at the wound, it showed very clearly. Just about where the teeth marks ended , two deep lacerations began where Raiza had pulled himself free. Flesh had been ripped out and pulled back in the grip of those teeth, leaving behind a mess of scarring tissue and still bleeding veins. To say the wound was gruesome to look at, as it covered nearly half of the left side of his neck , was a bit of an understatement. Nevertheless, just seeing it filled Raiza with the same helpless rage and self hate he had felt that night.

The wound would always be a reminder on how he had failed when he should not have done so. How he had been unable to save the most precious person to him. How his own body had betrayed him at the moment he couldn't have afforded it to.

Feeling fingers twitch at the urge to lift a hand and dig his claws into the wound, Raiza slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath to try and calm his torrent of emotions. Had he been alone, he might have thrown something or maybe even complied to his want to claw at the wound. However, that was not the case at the moment. Hotaru would probably realize something was wrong if Raiza caused any physical harm to himself and that would probably be more bothersome than it was worth.

Instead the Inugami forced his mind off his neck and quickly cleaned the rest of his body. By the time he deemed himself ready to climb out of the tub, he realized he honestly had no idea what he was meant to wear for the time being until he retrieved his cloths or bought new ones. Exhaling a heavy breath, Raiza rised from the tub and quietly reached for a towel as he stepped out of the water. Drying his hair and torso the best he could, the Inugami once again dropped his hair over his left shoulder to conceal the wound while he wrapped the towel around his waist.

Pulling the plug in the tub, Raiza quickly and efficiently cleaned what he had made a mess of before heading towards the door of the bathroom. Once out, he followed his nose to where Hotaru stood in the kitchenette and cleared his throat briefly before asking in his ever present monotonic tone "Hotaru, would you have any cloths I could use until I get my own tomorrow? Also, the kit I used to tend to your wounds. I will require it for just a moment to tend to my neck before dinner if you don't mind".

April 19, 2016

A new song had started playing over the radio and Hotaru leaned onto the counter, humming along to the familiar tune. His tail was swaying to and fro and he had to almost stifle a snicker as he replayed Raiza's words from earlier. Hotaru had always taken compliments graciously during his time at the academy, trying to be humble and highlight the role of his fellow colleagues. However, something about Raiza - big meanie Raiza - calling his feats 'impressive' and that Hotaru maybe knew even more than he did mad him feel almost giddy with pride. Raiza even said he'd train with him. The anger from not even a day ago seemed aeons in the past and Hotaru found that he was becoming much more attached to Raiza than he'd thought possible in a single day. From behind him, he heard a now characteristic monotone voice.

"Hotaru, would you have any clothes I could use until I get my own tomorrow? Also, the kit I used to tend to your wounds. I will require it for just a moment to tend to my neck before dinner if you don't mind."

Hotaru straightened, grinning at Raiza, his tail wagging unconsciously.

"No prob!" Hotaru rushed past Raiza, happiness lightening his movements into a half-skip, his tail still going a mile a minute. He speed-walked into his room, fumbling around his drawers until he found a plain white t-shirt and blue jeans. He grabbed another blue shirt with the logo of a random band on it, pulling it quickly over his own head before he walked back out to the kitchenette. He held the clothes out to Raiza, still grinning at him.

"Sorry, they may be a little big on you, but it should be fine. You and I have similaur body-types after all."

Once the clothes were taken, Hotaru moved over to the high-chair sitting in it like he had done before when Raiza had helped him clean his wounds. He grabbed the medical kit from the counter, clicking it open. "Here's the kit too." He held the box out to Raiza, bowing his head as if he was presenting a fine treasure to royalty for inspection. "Mi'lord, you promised I could be the royal box-bearer." Hotaru chuckled, winking at Raiza with a mischievous smirk. "I'll keep my eyes shut if you really want me to." He waited for Raiza's response, still holding out the box.

April 20, 2016

Finding Hotaru's happiness at a single request somewhat confusing, Raiza tilted his head to one side slightly and blinked rapidly as the man rushed past him. Turning his head just in time to catch sight of the enthusiastically wagging tail, Raiza's confusion increased tenfold. He only knew of a few who openly behaved in such a manner at any time of the day. Inari was one of them, then again, she had been like that from the moment he had met her as a pup in the streets struggling to survive. Kinoue had somewhat been like this, but he had never shown it quite to widely. A wide grin here and a enthusiastic pet of the head there, or a breathtaking hug were his signs of his happiness. Hotaru seemed to just be a bundle of all of that and much more. If Raiza were to be completely honest with himself, he could admit that it was amusing to a point. Yet again, Raiza probably wouldn't let himself admit that.

When the older Inugami returned, Raiza raised a thin brown at him even as the slightest hints of amusement briefly lightened his eyes. "They will do, thank you. I won't be using them for too long a time so the size is of no concern" he remarked calmly, taking the cloths from Hotaru before walking over to join him on the chair he had sat on before. He figured that he would tend to his wound before he put cloths on. The wound had still not closed and showed no signs of doing so, as it were, he didn't want to ruin anymore of Hotaru's cloths when he was forced to aggravate the wound in order to clean in.

Rolling his eyes at Hotaru's playful comment, Raiza merely shook his head even when a tiny smile made a guest appearance on his usually stoic features. "You may do what you want, I don't really care. As long as you do your job and hold the box steady, that's all that matters" he murmured softly, though there was the barest notes of teasing nature in his voice. Despite his shortcomings about the man, he couldn't deny that Hotaru went out of his way to make himself likeable for everyone else. Raiza could admit, he supposed, that it was an endearing characteristic.

Gently taking hold of his hair, Raiza quietly shifted it away from his neck and allowed it to dangle loosely down his back. Ignoring the ever present burning sensation of the bite wound that seemed to throb the more he left it in the open air, Raiza reached into the box for the small bottle of disinfectant and a cotton ball. Filling the ball with the clear liquid, the snow furred Inugami wasted no time in raising it up and pressing it gently yet firmly on the deep bite mark covering half the left part of his neck. The pain was instant and the level it rose in caught the Inugami slightly off guard. It was if someone had stabbed him with a knife and proceeded in twisting round and round into his neck, getting deeper each time. It was agonizing but Raiza refused to let it show aside from a few subtle subconscious gestures. The narrowing of his ruby eyes, the clenching of the jaw, the quick intake of air, the way his ears had lowered the exact moment the cotton ball had touched the wound, and the way tension seemed to radiate in waves off of him.

As he continued to carefully pass the soaked cotton ball against the wound, Raiza wasn't surprised when the smell of his own blood began to tickle his nose. It had been a month and while all his other wounds had healed more or less in the terms that they no longer were open or bleeding, his neck wound refused to make any progress. It confused and unnerved the man every time he had had to clean it while being in the kennel. Though he had refused to allow anyone to tend to him while he had spent the month rotting in his own misery, Raiza had given his word to at least pay minimum attention to the bite. And while he had expected it to begin to heal every time he had robotically began to clean it, the only thing the wound seemed to do was remain the same grotesque appearance and bleed with every touch or sharp movement Raiza made. Thinking about it more clearly now, he supposed he should ask Jinko about it or perhaps even the Director. He was clueless at this point as to what he could do and even if his pride rebelled at the thought of seeking help from others, he had run out of options in this particular matter.

Placing the cotton ball down on the counter briefly after he had thought he cleaned the bite well enough, Raiza ignored the brief touches of blood now touching his fingertips as he reached once more into the box and pulled out a roll of gauze. Making quick work of wrapping the gauze a few times around his neck to create a suffice layer in which the wound would not bleed through from, the Inugami relaxed a bit as the throb settled down once the open air wasn't touching it directly. Placing what remained of the gauze back into the box, Raiza surged up to his feet and gently swept his hair back over his shoulder to covered the gauze covered wound again in a clearly subconscious movement.

Flickering his ear up again once the task was done, Raiza discarded the dirty cotton ball in the trash and gazed around the kitchen. "Thank you" he murmured softly when he eyes landed once more on Hotaru, they were a bit more reserved now, but still gratitude shone lightly in them. The man might not have done anything physically to help but Raiza still felt like he should thank him for whatever reason. "Is there anything you need help with for dinner?" he asked after briefly washing his hands in the sink and walking back over to gather the cloths given to him, off the counter.

April 20, 2016

The more that Hotaru observed Raiza, the easier he found it to pick up on his cues. Far from being an emotionless statue like first impressions had told him, it seemed that Raiza was more like a stubborn stoic. While Hotaru wasn't able to pick up on absolutely every gesture Raiza made, he was able to pick up on the ones that mattered. The small smile being one of them. While Hotaru might have expected such a small upturn of the lips to be less powerful than a grin like his own, he was pleasantly surprised that actually it didn't seem to matter. Hotaru had always liked to see people smile. It meant they were happy with themselves and, in an indirect way, with him.

"You may do what you want, I don't really care. As long as you do your job and hold the box steady, that's all that matters."

'Job', eh?Was that Raiza's way of playing along? The dredges of a lighter, almost sarcastic tone confirmed it and Hotaru felt like laughing. He held himself back forcibly, calming himself down as he re-focused on the small box in his hands, putting a surprising amount of concentration into keeping the box still in his hands.

A logical part of his brain told him that even though Raiza had not explicitly banned him from looking at his neck wound, it might make Raiza uncomfortable if Hotaru simply stared at him the whole time. For the most part, Hotaru kept to his own advice, staring holes into the medical logo on the lid of the box, observing every small crack where the white paint had been scratched off. However, occasionally, his eyes would drift up to Raiza. Part of him wanted to feel jealous that, unlike himself, Raiza didn't make any open sounds of distress. But this was tempered when he saw the Inugami's twitching ears and contracted pupils. Hotaru let his tail hang down, his eyes clouding in thought.

An Inugami, especially a trained one, had very few universal weak spots. Out of the few that remained, the neck was the most dangerous, on account of the relative thinness of the skin, the proximity to the windpipe and jugular vein and the fact that, unlike the rest of the body, it was more difficult to protect with armour. Other than the physical weaknesses of the neck, the Inugami also suffered from a psychological weakness. When the Inugami had first been created by the human race some 50 years ago there had apparently been a lot of controversy around their creation. Among many, many issues had been the pragmatic question of how strong the Inugami should be created. Obviously, having a super-strong, incredibly fast and intelligent race of beings running around was useful for humans for many reasons. But there was always anxiety that such a force, if turned against them, could be deadly. So they built in a dead switch. Applying significant pressure to the neck of an Inugami, other than the possibility of physical damage, would also trigger an instinctual reaction. That reaction was fear and submission. Even the biggest and toughest Inugami found it difficult to fight that instinct.

Hotaru examined the marks and gashes on the left side of Raiza's neck. An attack like that was often deadly to an Inugami, if not completely taking them out of combat for an extended period. The wound was red and angry, much more than any of the other wounds Hotaru had seen on Raiza's body. Wounds like that took a long time to heal and were incredibly sensitive to reopening and infestation. Hotaru reminded himself to get Jinko's advice at a later date.

Eventually, Raiza finished, placing the supplies back in the now significantly lighter med-box. Hotaru shut it with an air of finality, clicking the locks shut before putting it back on the counter.

"Thank you."

Hotaru flicked his head back to Raiza, a little too quickly, his eyes wide. That had admittedly caught him off-guard. He smiled, this time more sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Aw, come on Rai, you're gonna make me blush." He chuckled, the nervousness he felt trickling out before he pulled himself back together.

He tilted his head at Raiza's question.

"Hmm? Nah. It's already done." Hotaru pointed back at the stew pot, slipping out of his seat and approaching it. The smell was strong and his tail wagged a little before settling again. He wasn't the best cook in the world, but he was still proud that this was one of his best dishes. He took of the lid, steam billowing out the top and with it the scent of the meat, vegetables and spices. He took a dramatic whiff, grinning at Raiza. "You go get some clothes on and I'll dish up." He pointed to the couch and the TV in front of it, which was currently on an ad break for candy or something. "I'm sure there's gotta be some trashy movie we can watch too."

He didn't wait for Raiza's response, leaning down to a small cupboard in the kitchenette and pulling out two substantial bowls and a ladle. He ladle some of the stew into each, going back down to tear or a few hunks of bread off. He took the bowls and bread over to the sofa, placing them on a small coffee table and grabbing the remote, flicking semi-randomly through channels until he found the movie channel, which seemed to be on an extended ad-break between movies.

April 23, 2016

Had the situation been less painful, Raiza might have laughed at how intently Hotaru was holding the box and even going as far as trying to keep his eyes focused on the box itself. It showed him that the man at least kept his dignity in regards even if Raiza had not told him that he couldn't look at the wound. Though he was reluctant to admit it, it was another thing he could point out as a positive aspect in Hotaru's personality. The man knew that was best to do without even having to be told or asked. Honestly, it was another thing that reminded him quite a bit of Kinoue. His handler had had the same mindset more times than not when Raiza was injured during missions. Though the Inugami might have growled and grumbled warnings to him about how he would do best not touching his wounds and how Raiza could take care of his own cuts without Kinoue's help, his Handler had always brushed those words aside and did as he thought right. It might have frustrated Raiza every now and again, but after several years, it had become simply something Kinoue did and the Inugami had learned to accept that. Hotaru truly reminded Raiza much of his fallen handler and he couldn't stop the soft spot that was slowly starting to form in him in regards to the older Inugami.

Raising a brow at Hotaru's reaction to Raiza simply thanking him, the snow furred Inugami rolled his eyes slowly and murmured a soft "Fool" under his breath. He didn't know where Hotaru's reaction had come from but it was sort of amusing.

Nodding when Hotaru told him that the food was done and all he had to do was put cloths on, Raiza turned on his heel and headed towards the bedroom again. However, when the scent of exactly what Hotaru had cooked hit him, he froze in his tracks. The stew he was smelling....it was nearly the exact scent of the stew Kinoue would often make for him during a hard, long mission. It was their comfort food after whatever they had had to face during their time on their field. It was something special between the two of them. Somewhere deep inside, Raiza wondered if he should be angry that Hotaru had made something he associated strictly with Kinoue.....but to be frank, he didn't have the will or energy to do so. Tiredness was beginning to seep into his bones again and the stew smelled to deliciously enticing for him to feel anything negative at the moment.

Finishing his walk to the room, Raiza closed the door and proceeded to dry himself off as best as he could. Once that was done, he tugged on the cloths Hotaru had allowed him to borrow. It was kind of frustrating to have the cloths be rather large on him, but at the same time, he knew it couldn't be helped. Hotaru had been right about their body types being similar, not exactly the same but similar. Besides, Raiza had lost a fair amount a weight during his month in the kennels, so it was little wonder than anyone's cloths might have hung off of him. If nothing else, it served as a small indication that he had to get his body back into the shape it had once been before his world had fallen apart around him.

Trying to keep the pants from falling off his hips, Raiza gave up the struggle with the shirt and allowed it to simply slip off one of his shoulders as he followed his nose out of the room and towards where Hotaru sat in front of the TV. Glancing at the soups carefully placed on the small coffee table, Raiza sank slowly down onto the couch with a small winch. "That stew. Where did you learn how to make it?" he asked softly after a moment, turning his ruby eyes on the other Inugami with a glint of silent curiosity in them.

April 23, 2016

Halfway through an ad about some new superhero series that was going to be airing soon, Hotaru felt the couch dip down slightly. He started to turn his head to his right, expecting Raiza. He wasn't disappointed in that respect, but he hadn't expected what he saw.

Raiza was sitting next to him, body slowly being engulfed by the couch as his weight pressed him further into it. He was wearing the shirt and jeans Hotaru had given him and it was only now that Hotaru realized their size difference on him. The shirt hung off one of Raiza's shoulder, slipping down to partway down his shoulder and revealing a significant portion of his collar bone, The jeans weren't much better. No skin was visible, as the shirt hung down enough to cover it, but it was obvious that the jeans were only just small enough to rest on Raiza's hips. Raiza's hair was dishevelled and still wet in parts. All of this, with a combination of Raiza's tired eyes, made an absolutely adorable picture.

Hotaru couldn't help it, honestly he couldn't. He snickered, trying to conceal his laugh, then snorted before exploding into uncontrollable giggles.

"Hehehehe! You look like you just got out of bed Rai! 's really cute." Hotaru pushed himself back into the couch, placing his left hand on his forehead as he tried to will himself to stop laughing. Really, it wasn't that funny. But something about the contrast and unexpectedness of it just got to Hotaru.

After a while, he managed to slow down, breathless. His left hand dropped to his side as he took deep breaths, a final few giggles escaping before he turned himself to Raiza, smiling warmly.

"Sorry... don't know what came over me... you can kill me if you want." He still smiled.

"That stew. Where did you learn how to make it?"

Hotaru tilted his head slightly to the side, taking in Raiza's curiosity.

"Hmm? Is it bad or something? Sorry, maybe I didn't make it right." He paused, considering the other meaning of the question. "Oh... well, Kinoue did, actually. It was the first thing he taught me to cook after he took me out of the alley... could never make it the same way he did, but it's my best recipe, I guess." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked forward at the TV. The movie had started, the opening credits and music playing. From the looks of it, it was some kind of buddy-cop movie.

Hotaru sighed, relaxing himself back into the couch as he started eating his stew. The stew was warm and slightly spicy and as he ate he felt himself relax. Today had been a tiring day after all and the warmth of the couch and stew, combined with the slight warmth he could feel from Raiza. After the credits finished and the movie started in earnest, he sighed, turning his head to Raiza, inadvertently shuffling a bit closer so Raiza could see him better.

"Sorry... should I not have made it? I know it bring some memories up for you don't exactly want..."

April 24, 2016

Hearing and seeing Hotaru start laughing at what he assumed was his expense, Raiza felt irritation take it's usually home inside him and his ear twitched in a mild sign of his annoyance at the loud laughter filling the room. Nevertheless, despite his irritation, Raiza could admit that he was a bit embarrassed as well. It wasn't entirely his fault that the cloths fell off of him in such a manner. When thinking childishly, Raiza would simply say that it was Hotaru's fault for having offered him his clearly too large set of clothing....but it couldn't really be helped and Raiza wasn't one to act like a little brat....unlike the man laughing beside him. Even so, just watching Hotaru laugh had the annoyed Inugami's affection for the other man begin to grow a bit more with the passing seconds. He would have never thought that in the length of a day he would think that Hotaru's laughter would be pleasing to hear...yet here he was trying to battle down his own answering smile that originated from a far more innocent, secluded part of his nature. Something that the other Inugami seemed to be awakening without much an effort at his end.

Even so, Raiza wasn't exactly pleased at being laughed at so he shot a glare at Hotaru's direction when the man spoke and growled "Call me cute one more time and I promise you that's the last thing you'll ever manage to say with your tongue still attached to your mouth". Maybe that had come out a bit harsh, Raiza himself would have lectured himself if he could, but he was tired and no matter how endearing it was to see Hotaru laugh, Raiza wasn't just going to stand back and allow the man to do it freely. That just wasn't like him at all.

"Continue laughing and I might just take you up on that offer" Raiza murmured when Hotaru had finally settled down enough to speak with any resemblance of calm. It was hard to stay upset at Hotaru when the man smiled at him the way he was doing at the moment, but Raiza wasn't going to give up his irritation so easily.

Shaking his head when Hotaru asked if something was wrong with the stew, Raiza gingerly lifted it up from the coffee table and gave the scent another light inhale. "It's fine, I was just curious is all" he replied, flickering his eyes briefly over to Hotaru when the man mentioned Kinoue. It had been a thought in the back of his mind that Kinoue had taught him how to make this stew, now that he knew though, he didn't know what to think. It was nice to have something Kinoue would have usually done, provided to him, but it ruffled the grief Raiza had pushed down as much as he could so he could handle the tasks to done. It made him miss his Handler all the more, but he knew things couldn't be changed and he shouldn't allow a mere dish of food to pull his spirits down all the more. It wouldn't be fair for any of them.

Beginning to eat the stew as he watched the movie that was starting to play, the snow furred Inugami found himself relaxing little by little. He didn't know if it was because of the effect the familiar food had to him, or just the surprising sense of safety he was getting at the moment....nor did he really care if he asked himself honestly. It was just nice to feel something aside from the constant negativity he had been plagued with over the last month.

Glancing over at Hotaru when he felt him shuffle closer, a part of him wanted to drawl his lips back and snarl at the invasion to his rather large personal space, but Raiza was much too tired for that. Instead, he simply watched the man with mild curiosity as he draped his tail over his lap calmly in a typical fashion of his whenever he knew he'd be sitting for quite some time. "It's not a question of whether or not I want these memories. Kinoue's memories will always remain with me, no matter if they are brought up intentionally or not. I don't mind that you made the stew that Kinoue would have usually done, I just wasn't expecting you to do so. That is all. There is nothing you have to apologize over, I am not upset over something so trivial" Raiza responded calmly, keeping his eyes on Hotaru for a moment longer before slowly turning them back to the TV while adding "You don't have to concern yourself so much".

April 24, 2016

The threats and glares from Raiza helped Hotaru calm down further, though they did also stoke the flames of his teasing nature. He realized, most subconsciously, that Raiza was fun to mess with.

"It's fine, I was just curious is all. It's not a question of whether or not I want these memories. Kinoue's memories will always remain with me, no matter if they are brought up intentionally or not. I don't mind that you made the stew that Kinoue would have usually done, I just wasn't expecting you to do so. That is all. There is nothing you have to apologize over, I am not upset over something so trivial." As red eyes stared into brown, Hotaru relaxed a little. Raiza was stronger than Hotaru seemed to be giving him credit for, and Hotaru knew he needed to think about it in that way. Hotaru may have found him in the depths of despair, suicidal and alone. However, Raiza was not a weak man and he had shown it in all the resistance he had put up to Hotaru so far. It did disconcert him a little that Raiza seemed to be locking away his grief, but he thought he should leave it alone for now and let Raiza work through his feelings as they went. Maybe, one day, he'd talk to Raiza about it, but not now.

Hotaru hmmed, turning away from Raiza who'd turned back to the screen. He was going to leave the subject to rest when Raiza quipped again.

"You don't have to concern yourself so much."

Hotaru stayed quiet, but let the words bounce around in his brain for a little while. For some reason, something about those words bothered him. He might not want to unnecessarily pry into Raiza's mind, but he also didn't want to set a precedent where Raiza would start locking stuff away either.

He continued eating his stew, letting the gentle warmth relax him further. He focused on the movie for a little while, smirking or chuckling quietly not really at the corny jokes, but at the idiocy of the cops involved. There was no way the police force could be that unprofessional. Eventually, he finished his stew. He grumbled a little finding that leaning forward to put the empty bowl on the coffee table was much more of an effort than normal. Eventually, with much difficulty, he willed himself to move, placing the bowl down, silently thanking his past self for already turning off the cooker. He hmmed again, readjusting his position so now his legs were drawn up to his chest. He gripped both legs wit his arms, overlapping them and curling into almost a ball shape. His tail wrapped itself securely around one of his legs in a silent self-assuring gesture. The position looked uncomfortable, and it mostly was. It was more habit than anything else.

As the movie droned on, Hotaru slowly found himself unable to focus on the characters or plot.

Wait, so when did they find the bad guys hideout? Oh, so the love interest is dead now...? Hotaru leaned his chin onto his knees, feeling little lead weights on his eyelids. A small part of him grumbled at him to stay awake and look after Raiza like he was meant to, but the larger part simply decided he could let his eyes rest for a couple of minutes. With what felt like an inhuman effort, he shifted his gaze to Raiza, sitting next to him. He kept silently watching him, humming occasionally to himself out of habit, like he was trying to speak, but his tiredness prevented him from doing so.

Yeah, a couple of minutes would be fine. Hotaru let his eyes drop and his body curled even more in on itself if that were possible, trying to trap as much warmth as possible close to his body. Within moments, he had blacked out and began to silently breath deeply, grumbling once every little while.

April 24, 2016

Knowing that his way of making himself subdue the grief he was feeling, could be a bit disconcerting, Raiza tried to soften the look in his ruby eyes. Honestly, his way of coping was almost like a defense mechanism he had developed from the moment he had lost his parents and found himself on the streets. He held his grief in as long as he could and when it was time, he released it in mind boggling anger so thick, it was almost impossible to control. Now was not the time to react to his grief. It would solve nothing and he had already dwelled on it long enough. When he began to find the people responsible for Kinoue's death, then he would show them exactly why he was called the "mad dog" of the canine unit. He would make them regret ever thinking of laying a hand on his handler, he'd make them regret the second they took him from Raiza....But for now, he'd have to hold it all back until the time came to let it out. No matter what anyone thought about his way of coping. All that mattered to him was getting his revenge, everything else could go to hell in a gift basket for all he cared.

Paying attention to the movie as he finished his own meal, Raiza felt a moments hint of depression when his stew came to an end. His hunger might have been abated for now, but he had not been ready for the stew to finish. It was a comfort to him to taste something from the past, but nevertheless, everything came to an end sooner or later. The stew wouldn't have remained in his bowl forever so there was no point in dwelling on it. Placing his own empty bowl on the coffee table, Raiza's ears flickered when he heard Hotaru grumbling something or another under his breath.

Slowly, those red eyes shifted back over to the man and Raiza's expression softened as he took in the position the man was in and the obvious factor that he was asleep. For a long moment, Raiza merely stared at the man before willing his own tired body up to his feet. Gathering the dirty plates, the Inugami brought the plates to the kitchen and made quick work of washing them quietly. Once that task was done, he placed them on the dish rack before heading into the bedroom. Pulling off one of the blankets of the bed, Raiza shuffled back into the living room and carefully draped the blanket over Hotaru's curled shape. Watching the man's peaceful expression had a larger softening occurring inside the usually sharp tongued Inugami's core. With a soft sigh and a shake of the head, Raiza tucked the blanket tightly over the older Inugami before reaching for the control and turning the TV off.

Once all his self appointed tasks were complete, Raiza silently made his way back into the bedroom and sank into the warm bed. It had been a long day and his body was itching for the comfort of sleep once again. Being that as it was, the Inugami didn't fight the urge to close his eyes and in turn, simply allowed sleep to pull him into its grasp once more as he tugged the bedsheets over his exhausted body.

April 24, 2016

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was too f-cking cold. Hotaru growled under his breath, drawing his coat and scarf closer to his body as he walked down a quiet , snowy downtown street of Sector L. If there was anything that Hotaru hated, it was the cold. It bit at his scars and reminded him of memories he wanted to so badly erase from his mind. Normally, at this time of year, Hotaru would have loved nothing more than to stay under his duvet and while away the hours, reading textbooks and anything else he could get his hands on. It was getting close to final exam time at the academy and, while Hotaru was told he was a talented candidate by a few professors, he didn't want to drop his game. Not now. Not when he was so close to the thing he had always aimed for.

The only conceivable thing that had gotten him out of his dorm accommodation had been a text from Kinoue sent at about lunch-time. It'd been short and too the point, although it had also been infested with emotes:

'Heyo! ( ･ω･)ﾉ Come meat me at Roller at 5! Gotta tell ya somethin'! （＾＿－）'

Hotaru had been half-tempted to text back with a no and winky face, but his curiosity caused him to snap. And now here he was, walking down an almost empty street, trying not to freeze his tail off. He smiled to himself, at least he was going to be fashionably late.

The 'Roller' was short for the 'Rock'n Roller', an old Western style bar in Sector L. Since Hotaru had gotten into his final year, his and Kinoue's schedules never seemed to match up anymore. If Kinoue wasn't on a mission with his 'Rai-Chan', Hotaru was desperately writing papers or training or being dragged along to social events. Their little talks at the Roller was one of the few things that had remained constant between the two and Hotaru was happy about that.

Eventually, Hotaru got to the door of the bar, the neon sign partially broken while the other half flashed. He looked around, not observing anything in particular before he took a deep breath and opened the door. Apart from the cold, Hotaru also hated alcohol. Everything about it assaulted his senses. The smell? Like sniffing chemical. The taste? Like drinking liquid fire and stomach acid. As he entered, the scent of a thousand different liqueurs and spirits filled his nose. He swore he could feel it burning the inside of his nose. Hotaru flicked his head from left to right, desperately trying to locate Kinoue. He didn't know why he bothered. Kinoue sat, as he always did, in one of the private booths along one of the walls of the bar. He was sipping a shandy, staring out the window at the streets beyond.

Hotaru huffed quietly to himself. Humans were lucky that they didn't have incredibly sensitive noses. At that moment, Kinoue turned his head to Hotaru. For some reason, most of his face appeared indistinct and blurred to Hotaru, though he blamed that on the wisps of smoke from tens of cigars and his won watering eyes from the bad smell. However, he could, as clear as day, make out his toothy grin. A grin that begged to be mirrored. An easy smile that drew you in and comforted you and left an impression. Despite his pain, Hotaru grinned back. Maybe it was Kinoue's influence over the years, but he found that he smiled a lot too nowadays. He'd like to have said he could barely remember the ever present snarl from years ago. Kinoue's loud voice broke him out of his spell.

"Ina! You just gonna stand there like a dunce, or are ya gonna sit with me?"

Hotaru jerked back into reality, shuffling quickly over to the booth. The booth was semi enclosed, with partitions separating it from the other booths and part of a partition in the front, meaning the occupants had to shimmy into their seats. He shuffled into the seat opposite Kinoue and instantly felt a chill wind bite at him. He looked up to see a small window had been cracked open, replacing the smell of smoke and alcohol with the cool air outside in the booth. He chuckled. That was just like Kinoue.

Kinoue smiled at him from across the table, pushing a glass towards him filled with red liquid.

"A Breezer, as usual, Mr. Lightweight." Kinoue grinned and Hotaru huffed in mock indignance before gratefully taking the offered drink. Hotary was convince that he could drink if he wanted to, as his body was stronger than most peoples and even Inugami's. However, because he hated the taste, he always went for low alcohol varieties. Kinoue always teased him for it, calling him 'Light Weight' and 'Milk Drinker'.

"Thanks." Hotaru said, taking a quick sip from the glass. He looked back at Kinoue, whose smile how now seemed to settle into something sadder and more sincere. Hotaru flicked his ears. This felt bad. "What's bothering you...?"

Kinoue's eyes widened, like he was genuinely surprised that Hotaru had noticed his expression. Hotaru rolled his eyes. It took an idiot to not recognise Kinoue's facial expressions.

"Spit it out. You know it's weird when you get quiet..." Kinoue chuckled at that, his eyes lightening somewhat.

"Yeah, I know... 's just... congrats on graduating..." Hotaru's ears flickered again. There was that bad feeling again. He tried to hide it, chuckling himself.

"I ain't got there yet, y'know?"

"Mhmm, I know, but honestly, you're more than capable. After all," Kinoue winked at him "You almost killed me the first time we met. That takes a damn competent Inugami." Hotaru smiled at that. He'd always admired how Hinoue could make light of that time, like it had just been another saturday night when for Hotaru it had been a key turning point in his life.

"Yeah, yeah. Sing my praises more~"

Kinoue smirked. "You already got plenty 'a people doing that,,," Hotaru laughed. That was true enough. Though he couldn't help but think that only one person's praise really mattered anyway.

"Anyway," Kinoue continued. "I'm sure you want to get back to your studies... so I'll make this brief." His tone had shifted from friendly to serious and for a third time, Hotaru felt a chill run down his spine. Or was that because of the weird chirping noise he could hear in the back of his skull. He ignored it, thinking it was someone's cell or something. He stared at Kinoue, fixing him with a signature glare that only Kinoue knew about.

"What you found?" The chirping began to get louder.

"Not much, just a tip." And louder. The sound was drilling itself into Hotaru's mind and seemed to make reality around him shake and fall apart. Everything began to crumble before his eyes and he felt like his conversation with Kinoue had missed a couple of steps. "Hey, Ina... could you make a promise for me?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, Hotaru jolted awake, swishing his head to the left and right. His eyes eventually settled on the chirping noise that had awoken him, falling on a small bird that was sitting on the window ledge, staring back out into the early spring air. Hotaru grumbled, closing his eyes again. Stupid bird. As he settled back into his original position, he noticed several things. Firstly, he noticed the terrible crick in his neck from his position the night before. That was when he noticed the blanket, still draped across him, though looser now because of his shuffling. Hotaru turned to his side and found that Raiza was no longer by hide and that the TV had been turned off and the dishes cleaned away.

Hotaru smiled warmly to himself, slowly moving himself out of his curled position. He didn't know if he wanted to tease Raiza or thank him. He stretched, relishing the satisfying pop his back made. He mumbled to himself, shuffling around the apartment until he came upon his old phone. He clicked it on, meanwhile shuffling to the kitchenette and putting on the kettle for some coffee. It was 9:15 AM. Normally, Hotaru would have panicked and ran to work again, but his mind quickly shut down his worries, reminding him that the Mizushima said that they didn't need to some in if they didn't want to. He chuckled to himself as he poured two cups of coffee. Yeah, like Raiza would let him have a lazy day.

He hmmed, grabbing a small tray and putting one the two mugs, as well as a small container of milk and a sugar jar. He hummed as he walked over to his bedroom, quietly walking inside. He glanced over at the sleeping figure in the bed and smiled, tail wagging slightly from side to side. From this angle, Raiza looked so peaceful. Hotaru felt a growing need to pet the other Inugami, but, remembering how last time had gone, refrained. Maybe later, when Raiza was awake. He placed the tray on the small bedside table. Gently nudging Raiza's shoulders once, then twice.

"Rai... Rai~ Wake up lazy-dog."

April 25, 2016

Feeling someone tugging him out o the blank sleep he had fallen into, Raiza's ears were the first thing to twitch before his eyelashes fluttered and those familiar ruby eyes peered out a bit hazily into the world. It took a moment for the Inugami to get his bearings about where he was. His nose twitched lightly at the scents of the apartment around him as his senses took note of everything else going on around him. Blinking lazily in a fashion that was quite unnatural for the usual strict Inugami, Raiza turned his eyes to gaze at Hotaru as a small, sleepily annoyed frown tugged his lips down. Grumbling softly under his breath, Raiza pushed himself up into a sitting position and raked a hand through long strands of hair. "What time is it?" he murmured softly, voice still thick with sleep, blinking sleep from his eyes and indulging briefly in stretching his back by reaching his arms out in front of him and arching his back in a pleasant manner.

His body still ached uncomfortably but he supposed that it couldn't be helped at the moment. His wounds had yet to heal properly and with the month of mistreatment he had bestowed upon himself, he wasn't surprised. Brushing the ache to the back of his mind as best as he could, Raiza inhaled a whiff of the air again and this time detected the scent of coffee in the room. Looking around slowly, the Inugami was quick to locate where the odor was coming from even as he pushed himself to swing his legs out of the warmth of the bed. He didn't truly want to leave the bed, but he knew he wouldn't allow himself to laze around all day. He intended to get things done and perhaps get some training in, with or without Hotaru's acceptance. That meant that the sooner he got off this bed and left this apartment, the better it would be.

Pushing loose hair away from his face, Raiza performed a few delicate little twists and turns in his hair in order to arrange it into a self made, loose knot to keep his hair from falling forward again. "When are we going to the agency? I have need to speak with the others and I would like to begin my training as soon as possible" he added after a moment, looking up at Hotaru from his spot sitting on the bed. He knew it probably wouldn't be wise to annoy his wounds while they were still healing, but Raiza wasn't one to let that keep him down. Especially not when he had a self-proclaimed mission to start. His body would just have to hold up and keep up with him, the Inugami wouldn't have it any other way.

If he guessed correctly, Kotetsu, Inari and their handlers had already begun to search for leads on who had been the ones responsible for Kinoue's death and Raiza's injuries a month ago. It didn't sit well with the canine that his friends were doing all the work while he was forced to remain off missions due to the will of the director. Being that as it was, he would do as he pleased, like he had done most of the time in the past. Kinoue wasn't here to stop him now and he didn't plan on letting anything slow him down. He had had a night's rest, that would have to last him until he allowed himself to rest again.

"Have you not eaten your breakfast yet?" Raiza asked quite suddenly when he took note of there being two mugs instead of simply one. Turning curious eyes on Hotaru, Raiza tilted his head to one side while he observed the man closely. He would have assumed Hotaru had ate already instead of bringing both their coffees into the room in order to wake Raiza from his sleep. It was clear that Raiza didn't understand Hotaru's course of actions and he was quite curious about them as well even in his naturally closed of nature.

April 25, 2016

It was surprisingly difficult for Hotaru not to emit an 'aw' when a bleary-eyed, blinking Raiza looked up at him, looking thoroughly unamused at being woken up. Hotaru managed to shut himself up, dreading what such a sound would cause the younger Inugami to do. However, he made a mental note to gradually teach Raiza the infinite joys of sleeping in, if Raiza even decided to continue living at his place.

"What time is it?" Hotaru smiled, talking softly to avoid jerking Raiza out of his less aware state too quickly. There was nothing worse than waking up with a jolt, as he personally knew.

"About 9.20... we've got time, don't worry."

Hotaru hummed as Raiza stretched out, eyes widening when Raiza seemed to suddenly swivel around towards where the coffees laid on the bedside table. He chuckled, internally proud he hadn't gotten the drink that wrong. He readjusted his position, moving to sit on the bed next to Raiza, close enough that he could feel some of the residual warmth in the bed sheets but hopefully not too close to disturb Raiza. Hotaru's tail started unconsciously, but noticeably, swaying from side to side, signalling Hotaru's satisfaction at the warmth. While Hotaru hated extremes of temperature, mostly due to how these two thing affected his scars and general mood, he loved warm places. It made sense that a bed, especially in the colder months, was his favourite place to be in the world. Honestly, if you asked him who he had a crush on, he would have pointed to his pillow in all seriousness.

Hotaru silently observed Raiza loosely braid his hair, listening to him speak quietly as he leaned forward to grab his own coffee mug from the bedside table, placing a large amount of milk in the cup to douse the bitter taste slightly.

"When are we going to the agency? I have need to speak with the others and I would like to begin my training as soon as possible."

Hotaru's brow raise slightly incredulously, through he eventually opted to just shrug and take a sip of his mug, mulling it over before speaking.

"Hmm, hmm... give it 30 minutes, maybe?" He dug around in his pockets, eventually finding his wallet and proudly flipping it open to reveal his bus card and flashing a grin at Raiza. "I remembered to bring this this time, so getting to the station should take about 10 minutes? I'll pay for you today, seeing as you probably don't have any money strictly on you, right?" He paused, taking another sip. "I'd prefer if you rested a bit more... those muscles of yours look awfully tight and your wounds could do with a bit more rest to heal..." he chuckled "But I doubt I can stop you anyway, but we'll take it a bit slow for a day or so, alright? Don't want to pull something important."

At the mention of 'others', Hotaru couldn't help but groan slightly. 'Others' meant other Inugami and other Inugami meant Kotetsu and Kotetsu meant more trouble than Hotaru honestly wanted to put up with. He just hoped Raiza would keep to his word and actually help him and not just throw him under the bus to be ripped apart by the brawnier Inugami. If that happened the station was not going to look pretty tonight.

He snickered. "Hey, Rai, if your muscles hurt, why not let me massage you a bit? I still remember a fair bit from physical therapy." The statement was only half-joking, the grin accompanied by honest eyes. It had been a while since Hotaru had last gone in for therapy, sure, but he'd been there enough times in the past 4 years to know the basics off by heart.

As he waited for a response, Hotaru twitched his ears when Raiza seemed to be genuinely curious as to why he hadn't eaten yet. Honestly, Hotaru hadn't thought about it. It just seemed natural to him to drink with Raiza. Wasn't that considered normal? What seemed more extraordinary to Hotaru was Raiza's clear confusion.

"Hmm? No? I guess I thought we could eat together or somethin'?" He smiled warmly this time. "Did Kinoue always eat before you when you guys lived together?" Hotaru knew bits and pieces from his talks with Kinoue in the past, but he still didn't know most of the mundane things that had occurred between the two. Or indeed anything important that Kinoue may not have wanted him to know about.

He continued to sip, eventually reaching the bottom of the mug. He took the last gulp gladly, letting his face relax in a sort of blissed-out expression before he dramatically, yet softly, placed the mug back on the tray. He turned to Raiza, grinning again. "What you want for food, eh? I ain't got that much here in terms of breakfast food, but there should be a convenience store down the road on the way to the bus-stop."

April 26, 2016

Blinking when Hotaru sat down on the bed a small distance from him, Raiza's eyes found themselves fixing on Hotaru's tail as it swayed slowly from side to side. Honestly, it was confusing as to how the smallest of things brought joy to the other Inugami. Especially when it came from someone Raiza had just only met a day ago. Normally, he was more used to people being a bit more cautious and reserved around him, but he could admit that Hotaru was refreshing breath a new air. More so when for some reason, Raiza felt the hints of safety filling him by simply being near the other man. It wasn't something he felt often and he was trying to will himself to get used to it even when a part of him rebelled fiercely.

Taking hold of his own mug of coffee once he had finished with his hair, Raiza yawned softly before taking a sip of one of his favorite drinks. It had been an instructor from the Academy that had first introduced him to the wonders of coffee and from that moment on, he had loved it more than anything else. Kinoue had found his coffee "addiction" quite amusing even though the human had been quite an addict as well. For this particular drink though, Raiza didn't care what he was called, as long as he was provided with coffee when he felt he needed it, his temper was far softer and his annoyance seemed to fade into the distance. Even more so when coffee was provided to him right after he had awoken, as was the case at that very moment.

"No, I don't have money right now. I'm sure Kotetsu and Natsume have passed by my old home to collect some of my belongings, so I will be sure to repay you once we see them in the agency" Raiza replied calmly enough, nestling the warm mug between both his hands. His own tail swayed just slightly from side to side at the simple smell of coffee. It seemed that just the brief sip he had had a second ago had already begun to work wonders on his usual sharp tongue and no nonsense style of thinking.

"I'll be fine, I'm not made of glass, Hotaru. Inugami were created to do their jobs effectively, whether they are injured or not, don't forget that. I have been resting for the past month, my body has fallen into a far from acceptable state and I won't stand to leave it like this for much longer......I will not push myself too badly, you don't have to worry. I can take care of myself while I train" Raiza replied, though his tone was far from icy as it might have been yesterday. He was still in the process of waking up and the coffee was relaxing him much more than he would have thought possible when placed in an environment he wasn't completely familiar with. He knew Hotaru wanted what was best for him, but Raiza didn't want to keep himself in the same state he was in now. His wounds would protest as he trained, that was for sure, but he wouldn't let that slow him down. He liked to think that he was made of tougher stuff than what he normally appeared.

Flickering his ears in brief interest when Hotaru mentioned physical therapy, Raiza flickered his eyes over to the other Inugamui even as he sipped a bit of his drink and allowed it's warmth to roll down his throat. "You went to physical therapy?" he questioned lightly, tilting his head to one side in a brief sign of his somewhat open curiosity. He assumed that whatever therapy the man might have undergone was probably for the scars he saw covering his body, but he dared not say that out loud. Turning his gaze forward again, the snow furred Inugami shrugged just barely while adding "I do not trust people touching me, Hotaru. It will cause more trouble for you if you try to go anywhere near my weakened state with any intents as you have mentioned. More so with the wound on my neck. My instincts will cause me to lash out and I am still much too weary to control myself properly".

He knew that in any other occasion, his answer would have simple been to growl out a few words and bare his teeth in warning at the man. However, he was just beginning the day and he didn't have the energy for that at the moment. For now, he would try to answer whatever was thrown his way with the least of his usual testiness.

"No.....Kinoue would wait until I was awake to eat. He often said it was what proper families did. Though I did not enjoy eating food in the mornings, he had a habit of forcing me to eat at least a small portion before we left to the agency....To be short, he was rather exasperating to wake up to" Raiza answered softly, a small fond smile touching his face for the first time that morning. It hurt to remember little things like that and know that he would never be able to experience it again, but he was trying to move past that. At least for now. He couldn't dwell on the grief when he had so much to do.

Glancing at Hotaru from the corner of his eyes, Raiza couldn't stop the quiet little chuckle that escaped him at the other Inugami's expression and his dramatic action. Murmuring a soft "Idiot" under his breath, Raiza finished his own drink while releasing another soft little yawn and shaking his head just a bit to wake himself up a bit more. "As I stated before, I don't make it a habit of eating food during these hours. I'm fine with coffee alone, to be honest, I'm not hungry. However, if you want to eat something, I would be willing to accompany you to buy it" he answered.

April 27, 2016

It took a little bit of effort for Hotaru not to make comments about how Raiza was acting. While he'd barely noticed the swaying of the other Inugami's tail, he had very definitely noticed the relative lack of proper words. From the start Raiza had always spoken formally, like using any sort of colloquialism would kill him. So it just made it all the more obvious when he started to drop some vowels from his impeccable speech pattern. Hotaru didn't comment, but internally he was nodding his head, making sure to get coffee for Raiza everyday in the morning if it relaxed him this much.

"I'll be fine, I'm not made of glass, Hotaru. Inugami were created to do their jobs effectively, whether they are injured or not, don't forget that. I have been resting for the past month, my body has fallen into a far from acceptable state and I won't stand to leave it like this for much longer......I will not push myself too badly, you don't have to worry. I can take care of myself while I train."

Hotaru was half-tempted to scoff at Raiza. Clearly he didn't understand the meaning of 'rest'. However, he couldn't help but admit to himself that Raiza was right. Coddling him wasn't going to help him get better and while Kinoue's voice in his head told him he shouldn't let Raiza get hurt, he knew he had to let Raiza get better in his own way. He placated his own worries by saying he would be training with Raiza anyway, so it wasn't like he could go too far. Even if he did, they were partners now. It was Hotaru's duty to provide a safe environment and work with Raiza and he was determined to do so, though he didn't know exactly why. Hotaru had never really been the determined or protective type. In fact, he remembered himself being much closer to Raiza in personality, with more curse words and angry outbursts... and crying... he remembered crying a lot. Hotaru brushed away the old memories that threatened to resurface, instead focusing himself on Raiza's next question.

He smiled down at Raiza, winking.

"'Course I did! Probably wouldn't be able to move otherwise." He traced some of his scars through his shirt, fingers lingering on the largest one on his front. In truth, he hadn't only been in therapy for his scars. Among other things, he'd been in for malnutrition, muscle degradation, a host of diseases and infections and a couple of psychotherapy sessions. Hotaru 'rap' sheet was almost literally as long as his arm. But Raiza didn't need to know that. It was all in the past anyway, where it would stay. "Though they didn't do nearly as much as Kinoue did. He helped train me a bit before I went to the Academy. Best fighter I've seen in a while."

"I do not trust people touching me, Hotaru. It will cause more trouble for you if you try to go anywhere near my weakened state with any intents as you have mentioned. More so with the wound on my neck. My instincts will cause me to lash out and I am still much too weary to control myself properly."

Hotaru smiled, chuckling. He'd seen that little bit of a smile and heard the 'idiot' comment. So Raiza wasn't above teasing. He grinned devilishly. "Aw, that sucks. Does that mean I can do it when you're not 'weakened'?" He moved closer, leaning down close into Raiza's space, though hopefully not close enough that Raiza could swipe him too easily. "I'd like to give a try when you're ready, Rai-chan~" He gave Raiza a mock smoulder, before hopping back quickly. He grabbed the tray with the finished coffees on it, rushing quickly to the door to escape the oncoming fury. "We can go soon if you want!" He shouted behind him as he put the tray down on the kitchenette counter. "I can eat later. I get what you mean about not wanting to eat in the morning. Sometimes it's just too early for solids, y'know?"

He rushed back into the bedroom, rifling through his drawers until he found a button-up shirt (not as new as yesterdays, but whatever) and some black slacks. He bundled them under his arm, rushing back out and going to the bathroom, where he quickly changed before walking back out, humming to himself. The coffee had worked his magic and he was feeling pumped for the new day, even if that new day almost undoubtedly meant dealing with Kotetsu.

May 30, 2016

Taking in that Hotaru had gone through therapy, had the Inugami growing ever more curious about the other male. More so when Hotaru mentioned Kinoue, it had Raiza's eyes zeroing in on the other Inugami intently even as a tingle of pain touched his heart at the thought of his human. "Kinoue was the best in the force, at least that's what was often whispered around the ranks. The other members of the canine unit often spoke of us as if we were unbeatable. We were the team every one aspired to be....It's rather amusing to think back on it now. They thought of us as legends without knowing it would come to an end one day" Raiza mussed quietly as he slowly shut his eyes.

Though he wasn't snobbish nor did he think about himself as higher than others, he couldn't deny that Kinoue and he had been untouchable. They were the best that the force could offer. The unfailing team, the pair that always completed every mission without a hitch, the unstoppable pair. To think that all their bestowed glory had come tumbling down in a haze of confusion and blood. That an unexpected attack had left the best Inugami in the force without his Handler, the best human the force had to offer. Just thinking about it caused a small darkening in the Inugami yet he pushed it to the back of his mind again. He couldn't afford to be angry.....at least not yet. When the time was right and he stood in front of the people that had done this to him and Kinoue, then he would show them exactly how he earned the nickname of "mad dog".

.....Now was not the time though.

Shifting back a bit when Hotaru moved closer to him, Raiza's ears lowered slowly even while he narrowed his eyes on the man. It took less than a second for that guarded look to transform into one of surprise and embarrassed disbelief both at the words said and the look shot in his direction. Ignoring the blush creeping it's way onto his cheeks, Raiza peeled his lips back and snarled at the fellow white furred canine. "Try and touch me in any way and I'll rip your beating heart clean out of your still breathing form, mutt!" He snapped lividly, even while Hotaru hurried off away from him. It seemed that for all of the man's foolishness, he had a very firm survival instinct. At the very least he wasn't altogether ridiculous. If that had been the case, Raiza would have found a way to kill him instead of being forced to partner with him.

Hearing Hotaru speak from outside the bedroom, Raiza grumbled in annoyed tones under his voice while he carefully stood up and gently stretched his arms over his head. "We will leave when you ready yourself, so do hurry Hotaru. I'd rather get my own cloths from Kotetsu rather than wander around in items that do not fit me properly" Raiza responded easily enough as he tossed his braid off his shoulder so it would tangle against his back.

Looking down at his body the moment he had slowly lowered his arms back to his sides, Raiza sighed softly. The cloths Hotaru had provided him with the night before looked even larger now during the day. It looked rather ridiculous on a Inugami of his caliber, despite being in disgusting physical state. However, he had no choice at the moment. The cloths he had worn here from the kennels were bloodstained and ruined, he'd rather wear cloths that were too big on him rather than cloths that reminded him of what had happened a month ago.

Plopping back down into a sitting position back on the bed, Raiza watched Hotaru bustle around the room for a moment before vanishing again. Amusement filtered through him at the sight of the hurrying Inugami yet he said nothing. Instead he opted in closing his eyes calmly as he waited for Hotaru to finish whatever it was he was doing.

July 12, 2016

Hotaru continued to flit about his apartment, moving from one space to the next to gather all the items he needed to leave. Wallet, keys, phone. He rattled off the memorised list in his head. He grabbed a coat from a small airing closet and put it on, reveling in the dry, fluffy warmth of the black material for a moment as he stuffed all his supplies in it's pockets. The coat had been his own purchase, although it had been Kinoue who'd directed him to it when they had been walking back from one of their bar crawls. It had a waterproofed outside and a fluffy interior, which clearly showed the signs of wear and tear the coat had gone through. Despite being strictly a 'coat', the item was actually rather streamlined, fitting Hotaru's body just right.

As he went back to the bedroom, Hotaru couldn't help but chuckle internally about Raiza's reaction to his comments. The threat had been entirely expected, so Hotaru was much more drawn when Raiza actually showed signs of embarrassment. It hadn't been the first time he'd seen his partner blush and Hotaru was determined that it wouldn't be the last either, if he had anything to say about it. It had been a long time since someone had acted so sincerely to his teasing and he didn't want to lose that just yet.

In fact... I don't remember anyone ever reacting that way before...

He hummed, tail wagging as he half-entered the bedroom, leaning on the door frame. In line with his previous actions, he played up his hand, raising his arms above his head in what he knew was a traditional flexing position on human sports magazine covers. The effect was somewhat dampened by the coat, but Hotaru still managed to feel proud of himself as he smiled again, bearing his fangs just a little in what some old training colleagues had said was a 'flirty' way. He lowered his voice, putting on an almost growling tone.

"I'm ready... like what you see, Rai?"

Unknown to him, the entire image looked a little awkward to say the least. His tail, wagging in childish anticipation, didn't help either.

As his eyes focused on Raiza, looking for a reaction, he couldn't help but notice how big his clothes truly were on him. He'd laughed the night before about how they made Raiza look comically small. But now, in the gentle light of the day, they added an additional effect. Hotaru couldn't exactly pinpoint why, but he thought maybe he should buy some clothes more Raiza's size. The feeling made him straighten again, coughing as he rubbed the back of his neck, looking away. Wait, hadn't he been the one looking for a reaction!?

"Um... I guess we should get going, huh?... the longer we stay here, the more likely Kotetsu is to think I've kidnapped you, right?" Without waiting for a reply, he turned around, retreating to the front door, where he waited for Raiza to hopefully follow.

August 19, 2016

Opening his eyes when he heard Hotaru speak again, Raiza shifted his gaze up to the man he was begrudgingly allowing to work beside him. Staring blankly at the pose the man was making, Raiza tilted his head to one side and huffed softly even as a corner of his lips twitched up slightly. "Yes you look quite endearing. The pose looks like something that would have anyone dropping to their knees and salivating over you....truly impressive" he replied with a tint of sarcasm in his voice while he pushed himself off the bed and onto his feet a bit steadier than yesterday. Flickering his eyes up and down Hotaru's frame, mischief flickered briefly in the Inugami's brain as he mentally encouraged himself to show Hotaru that two could play at the game of appearing alluring. He was confident though that he would do better than the other Inugami's though.

"Kotetsu is more than aware that I can and will take care of myself if I need to, no matter the state of which I might be finding myself at the moment. You have no need to worry. And as I have said before, if you do not want him to openly engage you in a fight, stay behind me. I will handle him" Raiza replied calmly enough as he walked out of the room and followed after the other male with a calm sway of his tail with every step he took. Pausing right before he had intended to walk past Hotaru and open the door, Raiza spared his previous thoughts a bit of mind and chuckled softly before turning his full attention on the other white furred Inugami.

"Hotaru" he called softly, lowering his voice to a level in which a purr like quality filled it. Ruby eyes stared at the other man under the veil of now half lowered eyelids. Leaning forward a bit, he gave the man a small smile that seemed to possess a silent promise of seductive intentions behind it. Lowering his ears a bit and pressing them just an inch forward, Raiza's eyes darkened in a brief, albeit playful, sign of desire as he lifted a hand and reached out to gently touch his fingertips onto the man's clothed chest. "I would have liked what I had seen better if you would have removed your coat. You shouldn't hide a body that can wake the desires of anyone who looks at it. It is quite cruel of you" he purred, eyes never leaving the other pair he was staring steadily into. "Perhaps next time I'll offer to teach you exactly how you can raise your appeal in my eyes........or maybe I'll just give you a little show" he smirked slowly, letting his words sink in for a few seconds before abruptly pulling away with a chuckle.

Pushing whatever little show he had created to the back of his mind, Raiza dropped his hand and straightened his ears again with a quick, dismissing flick. Sparing the man another glance, this time more disinterested than before, he said "Shall we get going? I'd rather we not get there too late. I have much to do". Opening the door to Hotaru's home, Raiza walked out calmly as if nothing had happened. He didn't pause to wait for the other man, instead he kept walking while holding back the urge to release a laugh of pure amusement. He wasn't about to let Hotaru think he was the only who could pull little stunts like those.

The bonds that hold, For Cazuki

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