Rahne and Midnighter, December
Dec. 23rd, 2014 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
om_wolfsbane posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
om_mainMidnighter meets a bored wolf, and maybe almost kind of has a little bit of fun.
Some people meditated, but that wasn't Midnighter's thing. Or maybe it was, but in his own way. Sitting around just thinking about stuff (or not thinking about stuff, or whatever meditation dictated) didn't work for him, but going through the motions of his katas and striving to focus on his body as much as his brain would allow? That brought its own sort of peace with it.
That never meant that he grew oblivious to his surroundings, though; that wasn't who he was. The footfall coming closer was foreign to him, four legs instead of two, but a heavier body than he usually found in the four-legged creatures of the forest. He stopped and waited for whoever or whatever it was to come into view; fuck knew there were enough shifters around that it might be a who.
It had been drizzly and chill every day for what seemed like forever, but Rahne had lived outside through far worse. For the first day or two, she had hoped that someone might come looking for her, but no one had. Ever since then she had been moping twice as hard, and telling herself that this was her home now and she would just become a wolf forever and ever. But of course, when she heard Midnighter she couldn't help but come near to watch. He was the first human she had seen in...well, she had stopped counting the days after about 5.
Her velvet paws were even quieter than usual on the damp and softened earth, but even so she saw him hear her. She had never seen him before, but she knew that he must be a mutant from the school. That meant he might have the power to catch her if he saw her. But most likely not. So she showed herself, stepping partway around a large tree and into his line of sight.
A wolf, and a fucking huge one at that. Since Midnighter didn't figure wolves had suddenly moved into the woods, he was gonna bet on a shifter. "What do you want?" he asked, paying distracted attention to the scenarios filing through his mind. Fucking dangerous wolf, too. He stood there in a t-shirt, apparently unbothered by the cold, ready to move in an instant if the wolf attacked.
She tilted her head to the side. What did she want? There was no telling, really. She had just been drawn to the humanness of him, sounds and smells she had been missing. Still, she was a little annoyed that he had been able to tell she was a mutant, and showed it with a few moody flicks of her ear. And by chuffing at him reproachfully.
"I don't speak wolf," he retorted. He didn't sound or look as if patience was high on the list of things he'd mastered, either. So when after a couple of beats, the wolf remained a wolf, he decided that, fuck it. He'd just go back to what he had been doing, even with the wolf right there.
The kata didn't belong to any specific martial art. Midnighter had put it together himself, choosing moves his brain knew to be particularly efficient in this or that situation. Even with no context, no one to fight, they looked dangerous, potentially deadly as he went through them, now firmly keeping some of his attention on the wolf. As if he could have done otherwise.
Rahne wasn't sure exactly what he was doing; eventually she decided that it was some sort of weaponized yoga. He didn't look friendly. He looked like he could snap someone's neck into two pieces. But the wolf wasn't afraid. More than anything, she was annoyed. So she decided to trot down into his playground and take up space.
The moment the wolf was moving towards him, Midnighter stopped moving and faced - her? - again. Fuck, maybe he should be paying attention to the fucking journals. At least his new speedster stalker wasn't around.
"Back off," he told her, his tone making it sound more like an order than a suggestion.
Hwuff, she said. {No.} This guy seemed strung so tight. Was that how she looked, as a human? It all seemed so absurd, now. She lowered her shoulders a little, tensed and ready to bolt off as soon as he made a move, with her tail looped up over her back and wagging.
"I should give fucking cards around," Midnighter muttered to himself, jaw ticking. Fine, he'd give the speech again. "My mutation makes me dangerous. Every step you make towards me, I come up with new and more creative ways to take you out. Back off."
So what if he could control himself now, for the most part. Keeping people away from him was more about him wanting to be on his own (there were a few glaring exceptions) than about keeping people safe, by now.
She laid her ears back and whined. That was no fun of him. She paced back and forth a few times. {Play time. Come on.}
Fuck, what was it she wasn't getting? Midnighter made no effort to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "I don't fucking speak wolf," he repeated his earlier words.
But he had to admit, as he watched her move, that she looked good. Strong, powerful, dangerous. Everything he liked in people, weapons, and, apparently, animals.
She laid her ears back again, this time in reproachful annoyance. {Language. Shame on you.} Did he really not want to play? She started moving again, loping in a wide circle around him. Not getting too close, for fear that he would practice his neck snapping on her.
Midnighter sighed, hanging his head slightly and not bothering to turn around to keep looking at her when she moved behind his back. He still sensed her in more than one way; he didn't need to be looking at her.
Okay. Clearly she was bored, if she'd settled on him as a good thing to focus on. And she was also fucking stubborn. He might as well make the most of the opportunity, he figured.
"Fine," he muttered, looking murderous as he said so. "Wanna race?"
She barked a happy affirmative. Which instantly distracted her from him, because she hadn't known she could bark. She blinked in doggy surprise.
"Fine," he repeated, looking no happier for her answer. "Come on, then. Try and keep up." And he was off, at a fast run for a human, but not as fast as he actually could make it. He'd wait for her to fall in stride with him, and then push faster - they could both handle faster.
Hooray! Human interaction was much more satisfying when she didn't have to be one of them. She bolted after him, taking a snaking path around some of the trees and rocks in the way just to make things more interesting.
Midnighter, for his own part, used his surroundings to go as fast as possible, grabbing low branches to propel himself forward or leaping off of rocks when they were in his way, never stopping, never pausing, and gradually increasing his speed, always aware of where she was and what she was doing - not to mention edging away from Talon's part of the woods.
He was beginning to make Rahne actually work at this run. Normally, even a fast and athletic human couldn't have outrun her in a forest. Her wolf body was built for navigating the treacherous terrain, and theirs just wasn't. So what was this guy's mutant power? Exceptional footing? Tongue lolling out, now, she picked up her pace.
Midnighter was as aware of how much he was pushing her as how much he was pushing himself, when he went faster still. The truth was, he always liked a good workout, and this was turning out to be a great one. He should spend more time working on this sort of thing, instead of focusing all of his energy on actual combat.
Running with a friend was much more satisfying than running alone. This was a game. A triumphant deviation from her lonely rained - on forest existence, and also from her tense, awful human life. Rahne wanted to have this, always. Huffing loudly, she pushed herself to her limit, trying to get a few dozen yards ahead of him.
Midnighter's brain kept analyzing the terrain as they ran, offering the best options - along with scenarios to cut off the wolf and take her out, but those he was steadily ignoring, focused on pushing himself harder, faster. Even he couldn't keep up this speed indefinitely, and numbers on that very fact were filing through his mind as well. How much longer at this demanding pace, and how much longer if he decreased it, and by how much.
But they were getting a little too near Inu-yasha's area of the woods, now that they had avoided Talon's, and Midnighter slowed down, progressively coming to a halt. He didn't want to intrude upon the other kid anymore than he wanted people - or fucking animals, for that matter - to intrude on him.
Unsurprisingly, he wasn't out of breath, but he was breathing steadily, feeding his muscles much needed oxygen.
Rahne didn't decelerate as well as Midnighter did, and it took her a couple of wide loops around him to gradually slow to a trot. She was breathing heavily, with a cheerful doggy grin, her breath fogging and her tongue hanging out. She trotted happily over to him, to knock into his legs like an affectionate cat.
Midnighter's knee nudged her shoulder away before she might rub herself against him. It wasn't like he knew the way wolves behaved, but he was damn sure he didn't want to find out how they displayed... affection, or what the fuck ever. Of course, the fact that he only nudged her away was probably the best sign that he didn't completely dislike her.
"Come back tomorrow," he told her gruffly, hoping she'd take the hint this time.
§he chuffed an indignant puff of foggy breath at being repelled, but moved off willingly enough. A few meters away, she rolled onto her shoulder, reclining on the damp earth, still panting a bit. This had been great fun, and it seemed this boy had no intention of turning her in to the school. She would most certainly seek him out tomorrow.
Some people meditated, but that wasn't Midnighter's thing. Or maybe it was, but in his own way. Sitting around just thinking about stuff (or not thinking about stuff, or whatever meditation dictated) didn't work for him, but going through the motions of his katas and striving to focus on his body as much as his brain would allow? That brought its own sort of peace with it.
That never meant that he grew oblivious to his surroundings, though; that wasn't who he was. The footfall coming closer was foreign to him, four legs instead of two, but a heavier body than he usually found in the four-legged creatures of the forest. He stopped and waited for whoever or whatever it was to come into view; fuck knew there were enough shifters around that it might be a who.
It had been drizzly and chill every day for what seemed like forever, but Rahne had lived outside through far worse. For the first day or two, she had hoped that someone might come looking for her, but no one had. Ever since then she had been moping twice as hard, and telling herself that this was her home now and she would just become a wolf forever and ever. But of course, when she heard Midnighter she couldn't help but come near to watch. He was the first human she had seen in...well, she had stopped counting the days after about 5.
Her velvet paws were even quieter than usual on the damp and softened earth, but even so she saw him hear her. She had never seen him before, but she knew that he must be a mutant from the school. That meant he might have the power to catch her if he saw her. But most likely not. So she showed herself, stepping partway around a large tree and into his line of sight.
A wolf, and a fucking huge one at that. Since Midnighter didn't figure wolves had suddenly moved into the woods, he was gonna bet on a shifter. "What do you want?" he asked, paying distracted attention to the scenarios filing through his mind. Fucking dangerous wolf, too. He stood there in a t-shirt, apparently unbothered by the cold, ready to move in an instant if the wolf attacked.
She tilted her head to the side. What did she want? There was no telling, really. She had just been drawn to the humanness of him, sounds and smells she had been missing. Still, she was a little annoyed that he had been able to tell she was a mutant, and showed it with a few moody flicks of her ear. And by chuffing at him reproachfully.
"I don't speak wolf," he retorted. He didn't sound or look as if patience was high on the list of things he'd mastered, either. So when after a couple of beats, the wolf remained a wolf, he decided that, fuck it. He'd just go back to what he had been doing, even with the wolf right there.
The kata didn't belong to any specific martial art. Midnighter had put it together himself, choosing moves his brain knew to be particularly efficient in this or that situation. Even with no context, no one to fight, they looked dangerous, potentially deadly as he went through them, now firmly keeping some of his attention on the wolf. As if he could have done otherwise.
Rahne wasn't sure exactly what he was doing; eventually she decided that it was some sort of weaponized yoga. He didn't look friendly. He looked like he could snap someone's neck into two pieces. But the wolf wasn't afraid. More than anything, she was annoyed. So she decided to trot down into his playground and take up space.
The moment the wolf was moving towards him, Midnighter stopped moving and faced - her? - again. Fuck, maybe he should be paying attention to the fucking journals. At least his new speedster stalker wasn't around.
"Back off," he told her, his tone making it sound more like an order than a suggestion.
Hwuff, she said. {No.} This guy seemed strung so tight. Was that how she looked, as a human? It all seemed so absurd, now. She lowered her shoulders a little, tensed and ready to bolt off as soon as he made a move, with her tail looped up over her back and wagging.
"I should give fucking cards around," Midnighter muttered to himself, jaw ticking. Fine, he'd give the speech again. "My mutation makes me dangerous. Every step you make towards me, I come up with new and more creative ways to take you out. Back off."
So what if he could control himself now, for the most part. Keeping people away from him was more about him wanting to be on his own (there were a few glaring exceptions) than about keeping people safe, by now.
She laid her ears back and whined. That was no fun of him. She paced back and forth a few times. {Play time. Come on.}
Fuck, what was it she wasn't getting? Midnighter made no effort to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "I don't fucking speak wolf," he repeated his earlier words.
But he had to admit, as he watched her move, that she looked good. Strong, powerful, dangerous. Everything he liked in people, weapons, and, apparently, animals.
She laid her ears back again, this time in reproachful annoyance. {Language. Shame on you.} Did he really not want to play? She started moving again, loping in a wide circle around him. Not getting too close, for fear that he would practice his neck snapping on her.
Midnighter sighed, hanging his head slightly and not bothering to turn around to keep looking at her when she moved behind his back. He still sensed her in more than one way; he didn't need to be looking at her.
Okay. Clearly she was bored, if she'd settled on him as a good thing to focus on. And she was also fucking stubborn. He might as well make the most of the opportunity, he figured.
"Fine," he muttered, looking murderous as he said so. "Wanna race?"
She barked a happy affirmative. Which instantly distracted her from him, because she hadn't known she could bark. She blinked in doggy surprise.
"Fine," he repeated, looking no happier for her answer. "Come on, then. Try and keep up." And he was off, at a fast run for a human, but not as fast as he actually could make it. He'd wait for her to fall in stride with him, and then push faster - they could both handle faster.
Hooray! Human interaction was much more satisfying when she didn't have to be one of them. She bolted after him, taking a snaking path around some of the trees and rocks in the way just to make things more interesting.
Midnighter, for his own part, used his surroundings to go as fast as possible, grabbing low branches to propel himself forward or leaping off of rocks when they were in his way, never stopping, never pausing, and gradually increasing his speed, always aware of where she was and what she was doing - not to mention edging away from Talon's part of the woods.
He was beginning to make Rahne actually work at this run. Normally, even a fast and athletic human couldn't have outrun her in a forest. Her wolf body was built for navigating the treacherous terrain, and theirs just wasn't. So what was this guy's mutant power? Exceptional footing? Tongue lolling out, now, she picked up her pace.
Midnighter was as aware of how much he was pushing her as how much he was pushing himself, when he went faster still. The truth was, he always liked a good workout, and this was turning out to be a great one. He should spend more time working on this sort of thing, instead of focusing all of his energy on actual combat.
Running with a friend was much more satisfying than running alone. This was a game. A triumphant deviation from her lonely rained - on forest existence, and also from her tense, awful human life. Rahne wanted to have this, always. Huffing loudly, she pushed herself to her limit, trying to get a few dozen yards ahead of him.
Midnighter's brain kept analyzing the terrain as they ran, offering the best options - along with scenarios to cut off the wolf and take her out, but those he was steadily ignoring, focused on pushing himself harder, faster. Even he couldn't keep up this speed indefinitely, and numbers on that very fact were filing through his mind as well. How much longer at this demanding pace, and how much longer if he decreased it, and by how much.
But they were getting a little too near Inu-yasha's area of the woods, now that they had avoided Talon's, and Midnighter slowed down, progressively coming to a halt. He didn't want to intrude upon the other kid anymore than he wanted people - or fucking animals, for that matter - to intrude on him.
Unsurprisingly, he wasn't out of breath, but he was breathing steadily, feeding his muscles much needed oxygen.
Rahne didn't decelerate as well as Midnighter did, and it took her a couple of wide loops around him to gradually slow to a trot. She was breathing heavily, with a cheerful doggy grin, her breath fogging and her tongue hanging out. She trotted happily over to him, to knock into his legs like an affectionate cat.
Midnighter's knee nudged her shoulder away before she might rub herself against him. It wasn't like he knew the way wolves behaved, but he was damn sure he didn't want to find out how they displayed... affection, or what the fuck ever. Of course, the fact that he only nudged her away was probably the best sign that he didn't completely dislike her.
"Come back tomorrow," he told her gruffly, hoping she'd take the hint this time.
§he chuffed an indignant puff of foggy breath at being repelled, but moved off willingly enough. A few meters away, she rolled onto her shoulder, reclining on the damp earth, still panting a bit. This had been great fun, and it seemed this boy had no intention of turning her in to the school. She would most certainly seek him out tomorrow.
