Red Riding Hood -- Chapter 1

[bottan]

Title: Red Riding Hood
Pairings: KuroFai, SakuSyao, DouWata... the usual
Rating: M
Warning: Sex, later violence. Not together, though. Yuuko being cracky.
Summary: Still, nobody in the small town Hamelin knows of the impending danger that will descend upon them. Fai's most pressing issues have to do with the wolf of the forest stalking him, and his undeniable attraction towards said creature. AU

Chapters: 1 | 2

a/n: Written for the prompt in the Clampkink anon meme, asking for a KuroFai version of Little Red Riding Hood. A big, BIG thank you to Uakari and Mikkeneko, who helped me working my way through the plot and did an awesome job improving the first draft of this chapter. You're amazing and I love you beyond words. ♥ Also, thanks to everyone who has commented or given feedback in other ways, already. That's what keeps me writing. :D

EDIT: Oh, jeez, I forgot changing the random names I gave the OCs in the draft to something that makes sense. I'll leave Hermann to avoid confusion, for bland as the name is, at least it is wide-spread in the dark ages. However, I need to change James (the old man) to Jacob, which is a European version of the same thing. Nobody will even notice, right? :p

*

Kurogane lifted his head to taste the breeze. There was a smell that didn’t quite belong here. A faint hint of sour musk that made the wolf snort in disgust. He trudged through the scrub restlessly, deeper into the forest and away from the noise of the woodcutters and human dwellings. The heartbeat and life of the woods surrounded him, he bathed in a thousands of different smells, felt his skin tingle with the low noise of animals, insects, the rustling of the leaves. For all that Kurogane looked like a man, he had never been one and never would be. He was a creature of the woods, just as any other animal, and he hunted to taste blood in his mouth, to survive and to protect. And now, at the scent of an intruder, Kurogane felt his teeth baring and a snarl crawling up his throat.

This wasn’t what prey smelled like. This was the smell of a predator.

He felt his grip on the faint note loosening, and broke into a jog and then into a run, following the traces of that stink into the darkness of the forest, twigs scratching across his arms, and no longer caring for stealth – and then it was gone. Kurogane kept running, enraged and frustrated. For a few nights, he had been searching for the origin of this smell in his forest but whenever he felt he was getting closer it vanished into thin air, as though it had never been there in the first place. Something was in his territory and he wouldn’t tolerate it much longer. And he was going to chase it out, or to kill it, if it necessary.

Suddenly, something else registered through his fury. Kurogane slowed down, panting, his eyes wide in the soft darkness of the conifers. Birds were trilling and mosquitoes flitting by, settling on the wolf’s sweaty skin to leave their marks there.

Sweet like honey-baked goods, salty like a fresh sheen of sweat on washed skin, musky like the call of sex. And there was that little hum of a human voice, a nonsense song. And though the tune was low and mingling with the cry of the birds overhead and the dull crashes of axes and the shouts of the woodcutters far off, it was clear like bells in the wolf’s ears. It was leading him through the darker parts of the forest as though he was pulled by a string. His feet padded lightly on the soft ground, scaring small insects into flight, underbrush scraping at his worn out pants. The bushes got lighter as he neared the human street, and he came to a stop in the blue shadows of the trees, gazing out across a clearing just a few dozen meters off the road.

A young creature huddled on the floor amidst moss and small, white flowers, cool light catching in the red hood that covered his slender frame. Him. The wolf took a step forward and though he was sure he hadn’t made a single noise, the head of the young man swiveled around. The soft humming broke off abruptly and the hood fell from his head to reveal blonde hair so bright that the wolf found himself squinting at the human.

Soft lips were for a moment parted in astonishment, then quickly pressed together into a thin, nervous line. There was a faint blush to his cheeks, and amidst white skin glowing in the morning sun there lay eyes as blue and shining as the sky itself. An all but ethereal beauty lay over the young man. Then he pulled his hood back up in one swift movement, shadowing his features and hiding his mistrust with a wary smile.

“Hello stranger,” Red Riding Hood lifted himself with a natural kind of grace. His feet described a careful circle and then rested lightly in a stance that spoke of flight. “I didn’t hear you coming. I don’t think I have seen you with the woodcutters working down at the street, before?”

The wolf grinned and fell into a crouch by the trees, his back to the stem of an old tree. The shadow of the conifers was cool on his dust-caked skin. “Don’t play dumb. You know who I am.”

The kid smiled, and stepped further back. His heart was audibly beating faster now and his breath coming a bit short, just a little bit out of rhythm. It was the music of hunting, of mating, and it was forcing adrenaline into the beast’s veins. “Well, who doesn’t?,” he breathed and Kurogane’s nostrils flared at the smell of his curiosity. “I just wondered why the wolf of this forest would be following me around. I thought you spent your days prowling the wilderness and scaring robbers and bears away…”

 “I’m not some kind of watch dog, idiot,” Kurogane snorted, “is that what they’re telling you down in your pathetic village?”

“No, they say that you’re a beast and one day are going to kill us all,” the child breathed. And then he grinned a bit mockingly, “I came up with the rest, myself.”

The wolf glared at him. “This is not some kind of game. Nobody enters my territory without my permission. Certainly not someone like you.”

“Oh,” the you young man answered lightly. “So what are you going to do, eat me for gathering flowers? You do the same to the children gathering mushrooms up here? I’m really not that far into the woods, mind you, the road is right down that path.”

Kurogane’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t pretend you had anything in common with the villagers. I let the humans take the trees they need, and let them do their clumsy hunting. But this isn’t a playground, and you’re not enough of a child to not know what you’re implying by trespassing and seeking me out. You have been shunning the roads for over two moons, you pest, decide if you’re up to what you’re offering,” the wolf flashed the man a dangerous glare. “Come here one more time and I’ll assume you are facing me as an equal, may it be mate or rival.”

There was an annoyingly unbelieving laugh from across the clearing. “You’re one scary puppy.” Kurogane growled at that. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about, my little sister comes up here more often than I do, you never have bothered to threaten and scare her.”

“Listen, you brat, I told you it’s different.”

“I don’t believe that. Who says I’m seeking you out, anyway? I always thought it was you following me around, you know.”

Kurogane felt anger rise in his throat and he bit back on it. There was more confusion mixed into the child’s trail than he could cover up, and a good portion of attraction that he seemed all too eager to deny. He couldn’t be… could he be that clueless? Kurogane needed to remind himself that the child had grown up with humans, and that humans did a lot in the way of talking but little in the way of understanding… Hell, he might need to actually talk about this. He didn’t like the concept. “You really don’t get this, do you?”

Something unreadable flashed across Red Riding Hood’s features. “Well, I do know what they say about wolves.” Kurogane felt his ears twitch at the mischievous grin. “I’ve heard what happens to little girls wandering the forest at night…”

The wolf snorted, rocking on his heels. “You’re a grown man and it’s bright day, moron. Listen,” he opened his mouth and wasn’t quite sure how to say this in such way that the little girl would understand. “I am not a human, you know that, though I doubt that you really understand it… I left my pack a few years ago when I came of age to settle down in this forest. This is my territory. I am hunting, I keep this forest clean, I survive. And I have no business with humans, they don’t harm me, I don’t harm them. That’s all there is to it. However,” something more than fear had held the child’s gaze locked on the forest creature ever since the beginning, “I need a mate. You’re offering, even if you don’t realize. Don’t take this lightly. Choosing a mate is something that remains true for the rest of your life. I have made my choice, now you make yours. Stay on the freaking road, or deal with the consequences.”

The man looked at him with intent, dark eyes. “You’re mixing something up, I think. I am a human, too, puppy. And honestly, I believe that you are one, as well.”

“I’m not a dog, you stupid-“ the wolf snapped his mouth shut and growled. “Whatever. Believe what you want.”

The man started grinning. “I think, you are just a terribly muddy stranger, living in a forest, and in dire need of new pair of pants. Do you wash those? You should really get out of them…”

The sun was filtering through the wool of his cape, lighting his cheeks and nose in warm red, and the pull of his lips seemed almost… sultry. Kurogane hunched his shoulders a bit, setting his crossed arms on his knees, and staring across them at the illuminated figure in his clearing. Yes, he had waited for this.

And then… the kid inched backwards. Kurogane was cursing under his breath. Idiot humans…

“I really must be on my way, my aunt is waiting for me. She’s scary, you know.”

“Then don’t wander off the street, idiot.”

“Stupid puppy, I told you I was picking her flowers for my aunt!” he waved a plain, white bouquet. “But if I don’t hurry I’ll barely have time to greet her. My mother awaits me back by the fall of dusk – she’s worried about the wolves coming out at night, you know.” Kurogane felt his lips twitching, revealing his fangs. But he also saw the tremble that ran across soft, naked forearms, and the clutch of hands to the wicker basket. The man was afraid, but he was something else, too. Something that made his thighs tremble a bit and the hairs in his neck rise. He bit back the bellow, but he couldn’t help the growl. What was up with humans not being able to make up their minds?

“Seems he has gotten the wrong impression about wolves.”

Suddenly a bright smile lit Red Riding Hood’s features. “Well, in that case I better run along.”

And run he did. Kurogane barely had time to blink before the kid had catapulted himself down the road, his red cape billowing behind him and the soft bed of leaves and needles crunching under his feet. Kurogane was up and behind him within seconds, but stopped at the edge of the clearing, watching the red smudge vanishing within the woods. He didn’t really need to outrun the kid. It was really only a matter of time until he was back. Kurogane snorted and melted into the shadows.

*

Fai felt the wind across his face and the rush of blood in his cheeks. His feet were flying across the floor, sandals flapping, moving him towards the growing voices of human workers. The wolf, he thought, his breath harsh and hot in his lungs and his heart pumping wildly. The wolf, again. The road came into sight now, and one of the men let out a shout as he recognized him. Fai jumped across the felled, cleaned stem of a spruce barring his way, which earned him a cheer and a laugh from some of the woodcutters, and landed on the broad road with a thump and his arms clutched securely around his basket.

They were not usually working so close to the streets, but today they were cleaning the road leading from Hamelin to the next, bigger city. The last storm had knocked some of the bigger trees over to bar the cobble-stone road.

“Little Red Riding Hood! What are you doing up in the woods? Giving some poor mother grief, dating her little girl?” toothless old Jacob shouted at him with a lisp, axe swung up over his sinewy shoulder.

“Just bringing something over to my aunt,” Fai greeted the men with a good-natured grin. “You know how she is, drinking until the sun comes up and then complaining she feels ill. My mother send me over to look after her, anyway.” The men, fathers and sons alike, laid their work down shortly to talk and laugh. Fai knew all of them by name, and by the name of their mothers, and by the name of the girls the young ones had slept with after the last festival in town. Hamelin was barely more than a village, big enough for a church and a mayor to rule it, small enough for news to travel within an hour to every ear willing to listen.

 “You know what he’s like, old man, Redcap would rather ogle any of us than the girls,” one of them snorted now, without even looking him in the eye. Fai felt his grin grow stony, and the laughter getting stuck in his throat. Hermann wasn’t a bad lad, he cared well for his old mother – he just wasn’t very good at keeping his mouth shut.

“Don’t spout such blasphemy, he’s a good boy, never gave his mother no grief,” old Jacob spat into his direction through his missing front teeth. “Never did the things that’d make it necessary for him to apologize to poor Mary’s mother, like you did, if my old memory doesn’t fool me!” Dirty laughter followed that. Hermann shot the old man a sour look.

“Redcap might just stop pretending he wasn’t a sissy,” he bit out. “Cause he’s doing a piss-poor job.”

“Speaking from experience, Herm?” someone shouted at him. “Didn’t know you’d go for everything that had two legs, now, I’ll have to hide my little brother.”

Fai finally gathered his wits. “Me, a sissy?” he pouted his best girlish mannerism and twirled a bit on the spot. “It must be the red coat. And I told my aunt, the color would give the wrong impression. You know what they say about girls with red shoes.” It earned him a few chuckles, at least. People mostly fell quiet at the mention of aunt Yuuko.

 “Shut up,” Hermann mumbled, still not looking at anything but his saw while adjusting it against a stem to cut off some of the thinner, remaining twigs, “and start listening to him. It’s blasphemy and you know I’m right.”

It stung. Fai was only slightly comforted by the misgiving way the other men inched away from their vicious companion. Old Jacob eyed him with worry in his withered face. Fai felt it was better to bid his goodbye and let them settle this on their own. His smile was off and dishonest and he pulled his hood back up to hide his expression when taking off towards the city.

Hermann had only recently started acting so aggressively towards him. He mostly ignored it, and was reassured to see that nobody else joined the man in his act. He went to church, like everybody else, he was doing his best to be good and to helpful, so people didn’t complain if he was on the shy side concerning girls. Fai himself had known that he was different for as long as he could remember. Probably different in more than one way. His earliest memories evolved around feeling terribly off amidst other boys his age. He wasn’t a natural loner, but he still felt alone with them. His mother had taught him ever since he was a child that being different was not a bad thing, that not everything people and especially not everything the bible said was true, and that love was one of the things that were meant to be free of restriction. God bless her for that. Personally, Fai thought her particular mindset had a lot to do with the fact that he had never known his father, and that his mother still used her maiden name. She must have spent long years feeling as off around the strictly catholic villagers as Fai did. Hamelin was small, in the good ways, as well as in the bad ways.

He reached the small path that led up to his aunt’s hut in the middle of the forest. He forced his thoughts off the old unpleasant topic and back towards puppy until he felt the bounce return to his step and a smile pulling at his lips again. He’d known the man would find him if he strayed off the path for a bit. The wolf had been following him around for a while, and Fai had become apt at recognizing his angry glare burning into his neck. He knew it would be back this evening. A vague excitement was flooding his body.

It had been the first time they had been so close. That they had actually talked. Fai’s hair still stood on end when remembering the way his bare chest had heaved, and the animalistic way he moved, and his glare… He shuddered involuntarily. For the first time, today, he had been sure that puppy was interested in more than just watching him.

*

Yuuko had beautiful, large windows  in her hut, with a middle pieces of painted glass, depicting a pond of water lilies. They made the china and the white table cloth swim and glint in warm reds and greens. The smell of supper, cooking in the open kitchen at the end of the hut, blended with the aroma of sweet black tea, candle wax, and the clinging burn of spice and incent. Fai leaned back into the plush couch, listening to his aunt chattering about the rum that the last poor fellow asking her for a favor had brought as a payment. Watanuki came over from the kitchen table, balancing a tablet with the cake Fai had brought, all the while cursing loudly at the black cat wriggling its way between his feet.

“By the way, you stink of wolf, my dear,” Yuuko suddenly deadpanned.

Fai sputtered into his tea. “You… you smell puppy on me?” he choked with a teary smile. “It’s no wonder the villagers call you a witch, you know.”

Watanuki cleared his throat, as he put the cut up cake onto the table, pushing the delicate china out of the way. Fai stood up from the couch, still coughing into one of his hands, lifting the sugar pot up with the other one in order to make room. Yuuko, of course, just leaned back, contemplating her living room as though she had never seen it before.

“It’s not so much of a smell, I believe,” the bespectacled boy said with a concentrated face, his eyes slipping away from the china to take in Fai while serving him a slice of cake. “It’s… it looks like mist to me, clouding up… Mokona, off the table! It’s clouding up your… um… certain body parts… never mind.” The boy suddenly went beet red, toppled another piece of cake onto Yuuko’s dish in a hurry and then grabbed the cat to vanish back around the corner and into the kitchen. Fai stared after him, not for the first time being astonished at the perceptiveness of the boy’s gift… Wait, what body parts?

Yuuko smirked at him. “Ah, well, I guess it was time for you and Kurogane to meet. I hardly thought you would give me as much grief as sweet Syaoran and Sakura, but you never know how children turn out. Now give me your cup, you made a mess.” Fai handed it over, wiping his still wet hands on his cotton pants.

“Syaoran? Who would that be?” Fai asked, not really expecting an answer. Yuuko had strange ways of knowing what would happen in the future, and liked throwing bits and pieces our for people to pick up. Usually, she would demand alcohol for further elaboration.

“You will know him soon enough, dear,” Yuuko said, absent-mindedly pouring him more tea. Then, she pulled out a large bottle of something from under her rocking chair and laced both their drinks quite generously. Upon getting it back, Fai sniffed at his cup and was careful to keep his face neutral.

“I need to make my way back, you know, at night, through the forest, with a wolf on my trail… you think it’s a good idea to get me drunk?” He took a sip. Well, the rum certainly didn’t ruin the tea.

Yuuko leaned back with a wide smirk and crossed her legs in such a way that showed more skin than ought have been possible with the long dress she was wearing.

“It’s exactly what you will need tonight, my dear nephew. Oh, and possibly I should give you this, for future endeavors,” she leaned forward and shoved a few glistening packages across the table cloth, flat, quadrangular, and quite small in size. Fai picked one up carefully, and held it up to his eyes. It read: ‘Billy Boy,’ and below that in tiny, colorful letters: ‘strawberry flavor.’ Fai groaned inwardly. “Think of it as a reward for that excellent cake your mother made you bring over. And for those flowers.” She gestured towards the white bouquet sitting in the middle of the cluttered table.

“I never said I was going to… to sleep with him…” Fai muttered and carefully drank up his tea while he felt the blush creeping up his neck.

“Don’t be silly, of course you will,” Yuuko said matter of factly, “it’s fun and it’s healthy, dear boy, you know I keep telling you that.” And with that she partly vanished under the table to coo at Mokona and feed him little bits of cake.

“Aunt, don’t you think it would be a bit fast, all things considered? I don’t really want to throw myself at a complete stranger like that…”

“You shouldn’t think too much, today,” she murmured. “Maybe then you get a better feeling for what you want and what you don’t want.”

Fai wanted to protest at the ridiculousness of this all, but his mouth snapped shut when certain thoughts shot directly towards his grown. Maybe… he wouldn’t mind this… at all. Oh. He really was attracted to puppy. What made him still worry was the fact that he hadn’t really thought too hard on where this was leading, before. This had been a game, one that stretched over weeks, now. And Fai honestly hadn’t thought about this as much more than that, up to now. And suddenly puppy decided to be so serious about this all, and Yuuko implied that something was going to happen tonight. Fai would have played it down, it was just that Yuuko was mostly right when she said something was going to happen.

“You say yourself that everybody makes his own decisions, though, and that fate can be changed,” Fai said at length.

Yuuko came up, cat in her arms, her eyes serious. “You always make your own decisions. That’s what fate consists of.”

Now, that was helpful, Fai thought sarcastically. He let the condoms vanish into his pockets, anyway, and a strange feeling of anticipation settled in his stomach. Though it was really more a lump of anticipation. Fine. If things were going to happen fast, they were going to happen fast.

“You were right about the rum, by the way, it really is quite good,” he smiled across the table and held out his empty cup, “I wouldn’t mind another cup of it.”

“That’s my nephew!” Yuuko cheered, already reaching for the bottle. “Just remember not to drink too much, it takes the edge off.”

His aunt was half-way through the bottle without much help when Fai finally stepped out into the afternoon.

*

Yuuko stopped waving after her nephew. Her smile faded when she turned to face the wolf crouching in her vegetable field.

“You should be out there to look after him, you know,” she told him, sucking on her pipe and blowing out blue smoke.

“You’re pampering him,” it growled back at her from between the bean-stalks. “You know what is happening in the forest right now, and you know what it will lead up to. Tell me.”

“Nothing in this world comes without a price,” she shot back. “What are you going to pay me for that information?”

The wolf grumbled something uncomplimentary that made Yuuko smirk. The dead body of a rabbit  flew out of her field to land at her feet with a thump. The self-accounted witch eyed it for a second. “That’s hardly going to be enough, Kurogane.”

Another string of curses. “Then tell me at least this – how do I find that rat bastard that is messing with my forest? The trail grows cold at random, I can’t chase him out.”

Yuuko stared off into space, sorting through her thoughts and slowly sucking in smoke from her pipe. A dead rabbit wasn’t much of a payment for Kurogane. How much could she give him for an hour of hunting? “Just keep doing what you do. You will face him, eventually,” she finally said. “You don’t have much of a choice in this, darling. Things are already moving and this is bigger than may seem now.” And she knew that her next words were more than she should say, but maybe she herself needed to be assured that they were true, this time. “There will be times coming that will make you doubt yourself – remember that you do have the means to protect my dear nephew when need arises.”

This seemed to calm the wolf down in strange ways. And the next moment, he was gone, without so much as a whisper to give away his departure. Yuuko knew he had somehow managed to trample her seedlings, anyway.

She eyed the rabbit some more. Well, rabbit made excellent roast with red wine.

“Watanuki?”  she trilled.

Watanuki made known that he was in the kitchen, busy, and not her personal slave. Also, Mokona seemed to have gotten up on the stove somehow. Yuuko smirked and sucked at her pipe. At least it wasn't as quite anymore, since she had taken her apprentice in.

*

The sun was sinking when Fai found himself standing in the middle of the street, trying to control his breathing. Most of the songbirds had fallen quiet by now and the felled trees had been stacked up along the road, when the men had retired for the day. His wicker basket was as light as his head and his heart was beating as though he had run all the way here. He felt like he hadn’t drunk quite enough, for this. He felt as though he had drunken nothing at all, to be more precise.

Fai wasn’t quite so sure anymore if this had ever been the game he had made it out to be. It seemed all okay, as long as the wolf had kept his distance, just watching when Fai had let his clothes slip just so, or his hood, or threw suggestive glances at the silent man in the underbrush. Puppy had ruined it all with coming so close.

Red Riding Hood swallowed. He was hot and cold at the same time, little shivers creeping up and down his skin. He was eying the place where cobble stone turned into forest floor like a giant snake. He could still turn around and walk away. Nobody made him do this. A slight breeze rustled the leaves on the road and Fai didn’t have it in him to even find his fear ridiculous, when need and wanting and the wolf’s palpable gaze on his skin sent his head spinning and heat pooling in his groin.

He set his foot on soft forest ground, moving as though entranced. It didn’t take him a dozen steps until he saw the shadow of a man staring at him, conifers tall to at his sides.

*

Kurogane had been restlessly following Red Riding Hood along the road and only when he had set foot into the woods again, a strange calmness and sense of purpose overcame him. So the child had made his decision. He kept himself at bay, waiting for Red Riding Hood to enter deeper into the forest, away from human territory. To give the wolf the last piece of permission he needed.

The young man shivered almost impalpably and then trudged forwards. Not towards him, not directly, but towards the little clearing where they had met, earlier. Kurogane followed the scent of gingerbread, and alcohol, and warm skin. He even let him vanish from sight for a moment, following him by nothing but his heartbeat, and that smell.

And then, they were back where they had started.

Red Riding Hood stood completely still, a single figure in the warm sun, on a bed of flowers and moss. His back was turned and the red cape that framed his shoulders was glowing in the last light of the day, throwing a bright red glow on the white flowers at his feet. With a slight swish of the coat he turned around, carefully, almost like a dance step. His eyes were a bit wide and caught the drowning sunlight amidst red shadow and a timid smile.

 Kurogane stepped out into the clearing.

“Waiting for me, puppy?” he aimed for a nonchalant grin. The wolf growled at the stupid name. He saw right through the act and didn’t much care for it. More to the point, he just didn’t care, right now. He had waited long enough for the other to make his mind up, and even now the kid was still afraid, but to hell with it. He could smell his arousal.

“No more running, Red Riding Hood?” he asked lowly. The kid sat down his basket and when he straightened again, he drew a shaky breath and slowly shook his head no.

“Not today,” he answered in a whisper.

“Good.”

The kid couldn’t as much as yelp before the wolf was on him, kissing him hard. Red Riding Hood stiffened and then moaned and melted against him, opening his mouth willingly and ready. And, dear God, had he waited for this. He marveled a bit for at his self-control even as it unraveled into shreds and leaving his hands searching for skin and warmth. He hadn’t even realized how much he had been holding back.

The next time he opened his eyes, they had somehow sunk down to their knees, grass and small stones bit through his ragged pants and the one he had been hunting clung to his arms with a desperate kind of wanting. His mate, finally, Kurogane thought. And so beautiful, with the hood slipping off and feathery hair framing his swollen lips and lidded eyes. The wolf pressed him down, craving the friction of their bodies, the contact after all these weeks of watching. The man’s legs unfurled to open for him and slender arms wrapped around his neck. Fine hair brushed lightly against Kurogane’s cheek and felt better than he had imagined laying awake at night. Their lips moved blindly against each other. Red Riding Hood’s fingers tangled in his hair, fumbled for his neck and dug into his back, as the wolf drove their hips together. Heat was pooling in his groin fast, and sparks were erupting from where the child’s hands kneaded his muscles. The man broke the kiss to moan. Kurogane’s nose pressed into soft skin next to that open, panting mouth, pressing an open kiss onto his face. The man’s head turned and lips found his, sucking, licking, feeling.

Kurogane reached down to massage the man’s erection through his clothes. He dropped away from his mouth to find his neck, letting teeth scrap across soft skin. The man gasped soundlessly, his Adam’s apple working, swallowing as he bowed his head to expose more skin. Light caught on the slight sheen of sweat on his skin, and he tasted of salt and of the witch’s incense.

“Puppy…” the man groaned. The wolf growled and snapped at the softest patch of skin he could find. The man cried out satisfyingly and writhed under him.

“Kurogane,” he told the man through his teeth, nipping at his collarbone and moving up to his earlobe, all the while squeezing the other’s cock a bit more forcefully than would be comfortable.

“W-what?” he asked mindlessly.

“My name, you idiot – it’s Kurogane!”

“Hng… Kuro… puppy…”, Kurogane wasn’t sure what to make of it, when the kid was so obviously losing control and it filled him with such satisfaction to see those lips move to form nonsense while his lids fluttering shut in pleasure. “I’m Fai,” the other finally panted out.

“Uhuh,” Kurogane muttered and then they were shutting up to kiss again. The other’s hands were grappling at his back when the wolf finally decided to open their pants. His body had grown a bit numb with the mounting arousal and was screaming for more, faster, now. Fai was moaning without control into his mouth when Kurogane started pumping, and he was making little, hitched noises, was shivering, when the wolf’s thumb swirled across the head, smearing precum in little circles.

Kurogane was thinking almost strangely clear through the haze of it all. He knew he didn’t so much want to come, as he wanted to make his mate come. Wanted to see him lose it entirely. He wanted to make that last bit of fear vanish, the bit that still made his mate’s hands cold and sweaty against his back and his hips shiver with the need to move and the last bit of control keeping him from actually doing so. Kurogane wondered in the back of his head what exactly humans taught their children sex would be like. Though he knew it was ridiculous, he sometimes had the feeling they weren’t teaching them anything at all. Fai at least seemed more afraid and astonished by what was happening than Kurogane took as a compliment.

He shoved himself down, and the kid’s shirt up, feeling his mate watching him when he kissed his way down the shivering, flat stomach. He was on his knees, pushing Fai’s pants further down with both hands, marveling at the softness of the skin under his thumbs and his tongue. He let his lips wander towards the softness just under Fai’s navel, nose brushing against blonde pubic hair.

The young man gasped as he bumped against the red, erect penis. Kurogane took it in his hands, carefully steadying it, licking the bitter salt off the tip and then lowering his lips to part over the head and take it into his mouth.

Fingers that had been resting lightly on his shoulders now tangled in black hair forcefully, and the delicate noises from above him were telling him he did well. He pressed Fai’s hips down with his free hand, when they started bucking, and enjoyed the way the other writhed and his thighs trembled and strained. Little beads of sweat were trickling down his mate’s skin. Of course, he had only watched this before, never done it himself, but going by Fai’s body-language it wasn’t bad at all. He let his head bob up and down, Fai’s moans vibrating in his mouth, lost in sensation. And then started slapping him against the back of his head, demanding his attention with little noises that sounded suspiciously like: “Kuro-puppy.”

Kurogane let go and came up to kiss him.

“Didn’t want to come in your mouth…” Fai moaned helplessly when Kurogane let off enough for him to speak.

“Wouldn’t mind it,” Kurogane mumbled. Still, he obliged the kid and he gripped both of their cocks firmly and started pumping. Fai was pressing his nose into Kurogane’s neck and the wolf was breathing the sweet smell of his hair, finally touching himself, and getting lost in the friction. Suddenly, his mate was bucking under him and coming, crying out against the wolf’s skin, his nails leaving burning trails on Kurogane’s back. Kurogane kept pumping until the kid was spent, melting bonelessly into the ground and against his frame. Kurogane kissed the patch of skin under his ear, kissed his face, and neck, until heat and ice coiled in his abdomen and he himself came with a grunt, vision going white for a moment. And there was nothing but the smell of his mate, and of sex, and the ringing in his ears that bled any other noise out.

When the world came back to him, Kurogane leaned in to kiss his mate slowly and sweetly, their tongues merely swiping out to taste the other’s lips.

“You got drunk for this?” Kurogane mumbled against Red Riding Hood’s mouth. The taste of semen had mingled lightly with that of rum and sugar. The man chuckled deep in his throat.

“Not really drunk. But you know my aunt, right?”

Kurogane groaned a bit and kissed some more. He really didn’t want to think of the dirty old witch, right now.

“Gotta get back… my Mom’s… my mother is going to worry…” Fai slurred after a while. Kurogane lifted himself off, just to look a bit at that tired, smiling face. Damn, the wait had been worth it.

“You don’t need to go back. My den is nearby,” he told Red Riding Hood.

The kid laughed at him. “As though, I was going to sleep with you in your den.”

Kurogane stared incredulously at his mate. Fai’s expression slowly shifted and his smile fell away. He blinked.

“Puppy… I’m not going to live with you if that’s what you think,” he then said with a puzzled expression.

“You are my mate, you’ll live with me and I’ll be providing for you until you learn how to hunt,” Kurogane explained with a scowl. Idiot humans, filling the kid’s head with nonsense. “Course you’re staying with me. Coming of age means moving away from your pack, you’re behind the schedule, anyway.”

“No… no, no, no, I got responsibilities at home,” Fai now looked troubled and his hands started pushing Kurogane away. “I got a family, there, they need me. And even if I was going to live with you, I don’t have my things here… I know you’re fine running around in nothing but those pants that are almost coming off and living off raw flesh, but I am not…”

“We are mates,” Kurogane growled through clenched teeth, “I told you it was a bond for life, and it means living with me.”

Fai’s face shut down at that, and even though Kurogane was still close enough to feel the man’s breath on his faces, they suddenly were further apart than this morning, when Red Riding Hood didn’t have a name yet and was nothing but golden hair glinting in the sunlight and the promise of warm skin.

The sinking sun tinted his face in blue shadows, now, as he spoke.

“I’m not a wolf, Kurogane.”

This wasn’t what it was supposed to be. Kurogane felt the rage filtering through his confusion. Damn this. Damn this. Damn the fucking humans. He noticed the fear in the child’s eyes and rolled off of him with a snarl. “Whatever, then go live with your family. Doesn’t change a thing,” He couldn’t think clearly through the pounding anger and he bit back on the searing words that were trying to pour out of him. He would not blame the kid for growing up an idiot. It was not his freaking fault.

Leaves rustled as the kid came up behind him, silently. “Can I wash somewhere?” he asked in a small voice.

 “There’s a stream down that way,” Kurogane conceded. He breathed deliberately and then turned to watch Red Riding Hood getting out of his cape and the shirt, moving awkwardly with the cooling semen trickling down his stomach. The wolf huffed, moving over and wiping off a good portion of the fluid with his bare hands and rubbing it into his pants.

Fai suddenly broke out laughing. “Oh God, Kuro-puppy, you really need to wash those pants. And you’re so dirty, you got earth all over you,” he giggled helplessly clutching at his stomach.

The wolf huffed, and steadied the hysterical kid by grabbing his shaking shoulders. “I wash, you brat – I don’t smell, right?”

“Well… just a bit… almost as though you had just had sex…” Fai laughed, wiping at his tearing eyes. Kurogane slung his arms around him and held him against his chest until he finally stopped shaking with laughter and tears, and got very still. They breathed and Kurogane laid his cheek against the other’s hair and they both listened to the forest waking up to greet the night.

“Go home, for now,” Kurogane said, though just saying the words stung in his chest strangely.

Fai nodded and let out a shivering sigh. They parted slowly and the man didn’t look him in the eye when he said, “I’ll see you, then.”

Kurogane breathed, and let go. And he turned around, and broke for the woods that would engulf him with rustling leaves and their calming smell. He ran until his confusion was drowned out by the pounding of his heart.

The moon was rising, fat and round in the darkening sky, and the smell of forest and critters was rich in his nostrils. And there, again, was that irritating presence of another beast that he couldn’t quite place. Kurogane felt a snarl pulling on his lips. He would be killing, tonight.