onepassingnight | 003. the strength of the Wolf is the Pack

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003. the strength of the Wolf is the Pack

It's a meadow, surprisingly bright and green and the heat of an early spring sun is just beginning to warm the air. The grass is tall and green and there are almost more flowers than blades of grass in the area, riots of bright color and pure white hanging in delicate bells or open bursts of petals. Listening there's the faint drone of bees somewhere nearby, busy with their pollen and even fainter the hint of a stream somewhere, quick with the melt of snow from the mountains that take up the not that distant horizon. Weathered, stunted trees form a wood of sorts nearby, full of cool shade and the old smells of moss and bracken and last years fallen leaves. And Cloud -

Cloud is hard to find.

Until you notice the ears above the grass. Or perhaps a stray breeze blows by and you catch the ripple of gray fur between the swaying blades. He's lying on his stomach, chin resting across his arms and he's...

Well, he's a wolf. Grey and furry and lean muscle with eyes the color of the waters off Costa del Sol. And at the moment, he's watching the whispy clouds overhead, one ear twitching absently at a nearby bird that's trying to decide if he's invading it's nest space or not.

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It's going to be a long time before she stops him. Every minute she spends here, she feels a little more relaxed, a little more natural, a little more like she understands the mysteries of who she is to herself.

Because this feels fun. It's such a different feeling from her too-sharp and sometimes malicious pranks, or certainly her cold drive towards her goals. It just is.

And so she lets the wolf-Cloud pull her along; she stands to make ready to follow him.

He doesn't go far, just to the small shelf of sun warmed stone that juts up a little bit from the grass. He knows exactly where it is because as a small boy he used to hid under that small jut and, as an only slightly older boy, he used to stand on the edge and look out at the far horizon that it seemed he'd never reach. Now, though, he's older and needs neither. Instead he flops down on the smoothly weathered rock, close enough to the bottom that his tail can still sweep in the tall grass and parts his mouth so his tongue can loll out sideways at Ami. Eyes happy in his furred face and everything about the moment inviting her to join him.

She's nimble herself, and hops lightly up onto the rock before sitting at its edge, letting her legs dangle. Automatically, her hand comes up to the wolf-Cloud's fur again, and she rubs his back lightly.

It's so much easier like this.

He huffs out a breath at her touch, body going relaxed under the feel of her hand. It's nice. When he's human, touch from other humans means more. There are eddies and hidden messages and needs in it that he can't fathom, knows he misses entirely or misreads. As a wolf though? It's just touch. As simple and as pleasant as that. Nothing expected or offered that he needs to worry about not being able to return. And so, after a moment of simply enjoying the sun shine and the rub of her hand, he shifts over enough to drape his head over one of her thighs, slitting his eyes closed, even though his ears flip back just a little, as if asking if that's all right.

Maybe that's why she can let herself do this, too. She doesn't feel the strange mix of feelings she'd feel if she were treating him entirely as a human. In fact, she even lets him stay there. She's definitely not thinking about this as laying a boy's head in her lap.

Maybe the dream is just giving her an excuse to have the closeness she always wanted with the people around her, when she was never comfortable with how to manage it.

Summer's heat is just starting to fade in her waking life, and she finds the dream weather quite pleasant in its turn, just cooled enough to appreciate the touch of the fur and warm body.

"What is it like, being that way?" she wonders aloud. "Do your thoughts still stay busy?"

She doesn't push him off or tense up under him so he relaxes the rest of the way, taking her silence as permission and his ears droop comically off to the sides. There aren't many times he gets to just be. He always feels as if he should be pushing himself, as if he's not doing enough, as if there's more he should be doing and so even when he's still, inside him rarely is. This way though...

He's a dog. What can you expect out of a dog?

He'd be better at making the people he cares about happy if he was a dog.

So he just huffs out a soft sound and a moment later, he lifts his head from her leg enough to yawn, a wide out, lip stretching yawn of complete relaxation. With a soft rumble in his chest he settles his head back down on her again and rubs his chin until he's found the perfect spot, nose almost touching her knee.

He hopes that's answer enough.

"Must be nice to be that easy in your mind." She says it lightly, as though it's not too difficult to attain while still being enviable, but the truth is she's really not sure the last time she's simply been at peace with herself. There are always nagging questions.

One of his eyes slips open and shifts backward in his head, bright blue, to look at her. He knows, Ami. You can pretend but don't try to fool someone who never stops picking at himself mentally either. All he does though is make a quiet grunting in his chest. Thoughtful. He'd share this temporary peace if he could. After a minute he lifts his head and then stands. Before she can worry about reacting as well, he puts the flat of his head against her chest and, firmly but gently, he pushes.

"What-?" She looks around them, above him, trying to find whatever startled him. "What is it?" His ears are sharper than hers, probably, in this form; did he hear someone approaching?

... She isn't very good at this relaxation.

"It'd be easier if you could tell me, but show me."

He gave a soft snort, pausing in his push to pull back and look at her. His blue eyes were calm and mellow, relaxed. One paw came up and he gently but firmly, again, pushed at her shoulder, pushing her backward. After a moment of that, he dropped his paw and again applied the flat of his large head to her chest with the same indication. Firm backward push. Let go, Ami. He's not going to let anything hurt you in this place. But he will be stubborn about getting you on your back.

She lets out a slight oof as she finds herself nudged unavoidably onto her back. All she can do is laugh; just as if he's really a dog. If the sound comes out a bit uncertain, she rarely laughs that naturally these days.

"Too heavy," she says flippantly. "I'll put you on a diet next."

He makes snuffing noises in response to her complaint but he's pleased with himself. The rock is surprisingly free of rough spots and already comfortably warmed by the sun. Overhead the clouds seem to go on forever, starting with the imaginative puffy kind with the higher horse tails above. Tail thumping, Cloud lays down again himself, settling his head across her stomach and one paw. The meaning's clear. Stay put.

But after a minute, his nose shifts over to nudge hintingly at her hand.

It's hard for her to pull herself in sync with the wolf-Cloud's instincts. She's never been good at realizing what people want from her, and they have a barrier while he can't speak. But she slows herself down, takes a moment to decide it. She stays put and looks up to the sky. Her hand, prompted, lazily rubs and scratches him again. The flowers all around are beautiful. The clouds are white against a beautiful clear blue sea. She can see it right now.

"That one looks like your fluffy tail right now."

He relaxes again as he feels her do the same, settling in more comfortably and his paw comes off her stomach. Her hand in his fur soon has his eyes slitting in pleasure and the light breeze tickles over the fur of his back pleasantly, causing his tail to swish in unconscious contentment. At her words though, his eyes open and roll upward to look at the clouds above. He huffs at her teasing, though his tail curls to tuck up a bit more dignified against his legs now. Careful, he lightly nips at her fingertips, careful never to catch them in truth.

The lazy scene lends itself to thinking of equally lazy entertainments. Without seeming to expend much effort, Ami conjures a small ball of ice in the air. She rolls it across the grass just a few inches to see if the wolf-Cloud will become interested.

He doesn't move his body but his ears prick forward and both eyes open to watch the small movement. He's really embracing this wolf thing pretty fully and something small and mobile has his attention. He's just not sure if it's worth leaving behind soft and warm and scratches for yet or not.

She leans over - it doesn't take much yet - and picks up the ball again. This time, she rolls it between her two hands, from one to the other, back and forth. Looks like those scratches stopped anyway, for now.

Almost as if to challenge him - will he go for the game or insist on her return? - Ami shoots the wolf Cloud a sly smile. Which does he want?

His eyes follow the movement of the ball between her slender hands and at her look those blue eyes narrow. He knows what she's doing and -

dammit, those scratches are nice!

But... so is the idea of catching that ball and having the satisfaction of crunching that ice between his teeth. Back legs starting to tense, he snakes his head forward for it experimentally, careful not move the rest of himself and risk hitting her.

She rolls it just a short distance away, easy enough to chase after and pounce on and play with for awhile. What will really get fun is when she has a few at once rolling all around him.

In fact, while the wolf Cloud inspects the first ball, a second one forms in Ami's hands.

"Be careful!" she calls out. "You want to make sure to pay attention to everything."

Oh - he'll deal with that ball, Ami. Never doubt that. For his size, he's amazingly fluid as he bounds over the top of her and after the rolling ball of Evil. It doesn't get far thanks to his superior hunting skilz and he's already crunching it into loud, broken, slushy pieces with his bone white teeth as he turns his head to look at her warning.

He showed THAT ball who was boss.

Apparently she needs to step up her ice. And she does. There's a flash of light too pronounced, too defined to be a simple trick of the light off the reflective surface of the shards. They glow, and the ball pieces itself back together, stronger this time.

Let him try that one. It'll be like gnawing on something far harder than ice should ever be; she uses ice even as her weapon, after all. And of course, she's still showing off by the simple act of recreating her toy.

There's a quick lashing of the tongue to get the ice pieces off before they decide to solidify with the rest of the ball and trap him and he glares hard at the Pure Evil that has taken form in front of him, looking vaguely insulted. Legs stiff, he'll circle the newly reformed ball carefully, nosing at it in mistrust. A tentative nibble with the very front of his teeth proves the evil non-crunchiness of it and he'll growl a low sound, forgetting for a minute that there's a world outside Evil Balls of Not Crunchy Ice.

Oh, it's ON now, evil ice ball. It's on.

Evil and ice are her specialties. It won't be easy! Ami leans back on her hands, an unusually relaxed pose for her, as she watches the wolf-Cloud with his new foe.

"Shouldn't you be strong enough to tear it apart again?" she suggests. This will, finally, be possible if he keeps trying at it. Even as he chews and snaps and nibbles, tiny bits are shaved away.

She plucks a flower without lifting her hand from the ground.

His eyes lift at her voice and he gives her a dry look. Right. Evil Ice Ball is her fault. Crunchy ice is fun. Hard ice isn't. So he'll sit down for a minute with the ball at his feet and study it carefully, tail curled around his haunches, nose tipped down almost against his chest. Finally, apparently reaching a decision, he'll sneeze and stand up. Nosing around a bit, he'll finally settle on a spot. And start digging.

"Going to bury it?" She doesn't seem to bothered by the idea. Instead, she stays where she is, idly plucking a few more flowers. She has a small bouquet for herself by now.

"And then what? It won't melt even if you do."

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he'd SO never get away with this as a human >| lol

heh heh... Cloudy!Wolf gets away with EVERYTHING!

It's the cute factor D: XD

the cute IS powerful in wolfy clothes

it is. and he's shamelessly taking advantage of that RIGHT NOW. he just wanted her on her back!!

hell yeah! I mean - it's all for innocent intentions ;)

Mmhmmmmm XD

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