you and i, we'd forged something brand new

@Kuhn

^^

With Reiko no longer continuously unconscious, she had been caught up slowly on the happenings since her attack and it had been Tiberius who had been chosen to go talk to Kuhn. The titan had been... expecting it, really, given the fact that out of them all, Tiberius had been dealing with Kuhn for the longest but truly, he was not overly happy about it. He knew no one else would have been given the task but he... he had been happy to ignore the disappointment that he had felt towards the feline. Tiberius had thought there had been more respect between them, more of an understanding and something starting of a friendship and to find it so easily thrown in his face?

It was enough for Tiberius to remember just why he rarely made himself available to things such as friendship. What could he have expected, really, when the cat found company such as that creamy-necked gremlin? She wasn't happy unless destruction followed in her wake and she would delight in taking someone else down her chaotic path so long as it fit her needs. Tiberius had thought before that he hadn't a clue why the two brothers had kept the gremlin at the helm of their pack with them, given her inability to really do much other than cause trouble. The behemoth thought that the bitch would be his ruin, ensuring the cat would have nothing but enemies.

If that was what she was hoping for, then Tiberius supposed that Kuhn had made his decision. It was destruction for him, falling to the stereotype and not amounting to much more. He strode through the Tundra, his nose flared as he tracked the cat down. Hopefully he would be alone, for Tiberius thought that should he have to deal with the gremlin, he'd not make it through the exchange with his blood pressure in tact. He had been foolish, thinking that he had forged a friendship with Kuhn.

Nevertheless, he thought lowly, he was here for business, not for pleasure. It was time to put away his own feelings and do the duty he had been given. ^^

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Kuhn was in one of his typical places in the morning after a hunt at dawn. It didn't go to too well, only managing a few hares that he had dug screaming from their burrows. In the end there was nothing left of them, eaten bone and all, save for a pile of disgarded fur.

He supposed he was satisfied for now and headed back to the place where the samurai would find him. The tiger sometimes spent his downtime in his boneyard, a place that the tiger would drag larger kills, and reeked of death. He was working on something of a hobby at least when his princessa wasn't keeping him busy.

Lined to the side of the boneyard was an array of various skulls, collections from particular meaningful or good hunts. Notably the skulls where usually mostly intact and stripped of all their flesh.

Kuhn's latest project had actual been the boar skull, from the one that he took with Tiberius. Holding the skull down with his massive claws, he continued his craft precisely stripping it down with teeth and an abrasive tongue. It was almost perfect.
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The cat never made himself difficult to find. He had his usual haunts and today his scent took him towards the little boneyard that the cat had created. Perhaps it had been Tiberius not particularly wanting to have this talk that had made it so his long legs didn't reach their usual length as he strode through the snow, we'd never know -- but in the end, his skulking had brought him close enough to Kuhn now that he could see the cat. The titan huffed a small breath as he rolled his shoulders, the pool of disappointment unrelenting as it swirled around.

He knew he should give Kuhn the benefit of the doubt and perhaps that was why he hadn't so angrily shouted the cats name but he also... just wanted to prepare himself for the way Valmua was going to ruin Kuhn. She was going to singlehandedly ruin a peace treaty, possible friendships and lives and there was little, in truth, that Tiberius could do other than take it as it came. "Kuhn," the man rumbled as he stood in the snow, on the edge where some smaller bones lay. ^^

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Caught mid lick, the tiger's tongue was pressed against the skull of the boar, when his ears pivoted around to a sudden familiar voice. He knew who it was, their voice was unmistakable. Without imidately turning around, the cat thought he might already know why they where.

For a moment his ears drooped and a slight nervous expression crossed his face, though he didn't turn to let the titan see it. Wiping the expression from his face, he turned his head to meet the wolf's gaze.

"Tiberius! What brings you down here?" Still laying on the ground with the skull, he tried to play the fool acting as friendly and calm as possible. Though, his forced expression and a fidgeting tail might tell the titan a different story.
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Little did he knew, the cat was feeling not entirely great about the event. He didn't catch the nervous twitch of the cats ears, his molten gaze lifting up from the bones at his paws in time to see Kuhn look towards him. He glanced towards the cats twitching tail and hard looking expression as Kuhn greeted him, questioning his appearance. Tiberius puffed air through his nose as he wanted to frown towards Kuhn, knowing the cat must have an idea as to why he was coming to him without the promise of a hunt. "Been a while, mate," the titan rumbled as he watched the feline.

"I's been sent on Pack business ta tah," Tiberius divulged quietly though an ear twitched as he watched him, "firs' though, I's gonn' ask yah as friends, yeah? Can return tah official bullshit aftah." Because damnit, he had thought more of the cat once they had sorted their shit out. He had thought the cat thought more of him. "I 'eard about tha cache shit, wit'yah an' Valmua," the titan would frown then as he shook his head. "Gonna tell me why tha' 'appened?" Tiberius wondered if the skull that the cat had been paying attention to was the same boar that they had killed and feasted on together. ^^

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As different as his feline body language might have been, he had always wore his emotions on his sleeve and his attempt at concealing his worry was a failure. "Ya... Ya.. it's, has been awhile, right?" Stammering, the cats fidgeting have began to worsen as he pawed at a hip bone of some sort.

The tiger's wild stare was also notably absent, as he consigned himself to looking at the ground, avoiding the molten gaze of the wolf standing above him. "Oh that... I mean I don't know, I didn't take anything... Then, a bunch of wolves showed up and ... Then you know... It was not good, it was bad. "

He knew his answer sucked and twisting knot in sun cat's stomach grew, as he waited to see how his friend would take his answer, all the while tense and gritting his teeth. Perhaps he would get let off easy?
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Kuhn stumbled upon his words as he stared down at the ground, not willing to peer back at Tiberius as he watched him. His ears twitched to the sound of his words and the titan let out a sigh, rolling his shoulders as he cast his molten gaze to the sky, as if pleading to a God to let him catch a goddamn break. "Don't matter if yah took anythin', mate," Tiberius rumbled as he shook his head, "yah know wha' we all agreed. We ain't agreed tha' yah come into our lands with Valmua ta cause trouble." Tiberius sounded tired once again he spoke, dropping his rump to the snow as he stretched his paws against the powder.

"She ain't allowed ta roam in our lands like yaself," but Kuhn had to have known that, had to have known that they only extended him their peace treaty to wander each others lands. The feline was not stupid but perhaps he was easily swayed, especially by the gremlin. "Tha' sorta shite cain't 'appen," The titan stated quietly, dropping his gaze from the sky to peer towards the cat in question. "Was ah wrong?" Tiberius asked with furrowed brows, "ta think we were friends?" 'cause fuck, if he had gotten it that wrong, what else had he gotten wrong? ^^

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Un-gritting his teeth, the cat relaxed as the Titian took his seat. No, it didn't appear Tiberius was here to bite him nor was irately laying into him. But, in a way his reasonable approach made it worse, giving the cat no room to get defensive. He could only give an earnest answer.

"I mean, I didn't know that's what she was going to do! She was like: 'let's go visit our neighbors' then by the time we got there, you know... What was I supposed to do? Drag her out by the tail?" Kuhn seemed to hang up on that last part of the statement, his mind drifting to an image of him grabbing her by the tail.

Quickly shaking himself out of it, his gaze finally went back to Tiberius. Internally he was happy that the titan had considered him a friend. Even with the circumstances at the moment Kuhn couldn't help but smile a bit.

"I know, that shouldn't happen. I'm sorry it did Tib." Breaking his attention from the wolf for a moment he placed his paw back on the large boar skull shaking his head. "No. I would be glad to call you a friend."
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He spoke of not knowing what Valmua had been up to and Tiberius suffered a sigh mixed with a snort, not caring to hide it as he eyed the cat dryly, "'cause yah cain't say "nah," mate? C'mon, yah fully well know tha type of wolf she is." Honestly -- was he blinded by the bit of anatomy between Valmua's gremlin legs? Or did he genuinely like the chit? Now Tiberius was no fool, why else would someone put up with a creature like Valmua? It wasn't her stellar personality, that's for sure. Kuhn had to know she was a troublemaker, the bitch didn't try and hide it, after all. 

Kuhn had settled, seemingly more relaxed where he was as Tiberius remained seated and calm with his approach. Tiberius had been silent as his words had settled between them, Kuhn quick to apologise and say he would be glad to call them friends. He released a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding as he rolled his shoulders, "I's want ta know tha' wha'ever yah git goin' on wit' 'er ain't gonna 'cause problems wit' us," he added quietly, shifting on his haunches as he felt the discomfort of being so... open with whatever he was feeling.

The titan stood quietly and skulked closer to the cat, his molten gaze on the boar's skull. "I's git m'work cut out fer me wit' Pack stuff without tha addition of tha' kinda shit, yeah?" he muttered, his ears twitching as he stood at a small distance, "where'dya git tha'?" was it weird he wanted to be told it was the skull from their hunt? ^^

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Moments like this where what really made it annoying to live with wolves. Once again the wolves where getting, aggravated about petty things. Stuffing his annoyance with his friend downward, the tiger did his best to listen, knowing stuff like this was important to his canine counterparts, though he had no idea why. Listening attentively, Kuhn nodded his head, really trying his best to understand the problem, in the end the tiger ended up looking through the titan, seeming at a loss.

He couldn't help but respond, tilting his head to the side, "What do you mean, what kind of wolf she is? Trouble? Nobody got hurt... Right?" . The striped beast actually looked puzzled, as if trying to bridge another disconnect between their species. In the cats mind, a little trouble making was actually genuinely endearing, and never thought that there was any malice behind any of it.

His friend's interest in the skull was a welcome distraction from this draining conversation. The cat's gaze followed tiberius' to the skull, where Kuhn couldn't help but crack an small exited smile. "Well, you weren't supposed to see this yet but... It's actually for you." Looking over the skull pridefully, then at the others in his collection, his focus retuned to the wolf as his tail beat at the floor in excitement "You know, they are just a little something... I clean them up from good hunts, this is actually the one we took down together."
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He should have known that the difference between feline and wolf would eventually come back to be an apparent barrier and Tiberius was very doubtful that Valmua would ever explain to Kuhn how, in general, wolves as a species would operate. Given her penchant for trouble. "It ain't... it ain't jus' about someone gettin' 'urt, yeah? Wolves ain't usually strollin' into each others territories, especially if they ain't been previously welcomed." Kuhn was welcome, the invitation made clear -- Valmua had never been extended such a pleasure. "She wouldn't like it if we went strollin' into 'er land, yeah? Reckon she'd be mighty pissed off, an' tha brothers, too." Then again, Valmua striked Tiberius as a rather large hypocrite. Gods, he wished Kuhn had simply eaten her instead of doing... whatever the fuck it was he was.

 Tiberius couldn't help the look of surprise that coloured his features as Kuhn went on to talk about the skull, telling him that it was... it was for him. Tiberius blinked, he hadn't been given a gift before. "Oh yeah?" He looked intrigued, younger than he ever did despite being all but 2 years, his features slack with youthful curiosity and warmth. Tiberius stepped forward with a tilted head, his ears cuffing forward as Kuhn told him that it was, in fact, the boar that they took down together. "Our 'unt?" it wasn't really a question, more of him talking to himself as he felt his tail wag behind him. "Lookin' real fuckin' good, mate," Tiberius praised.

He'd taken the skull and he'd been working on cleaning it up to give to him. That was friendship, right? "Why?" Tiberius asked, flashing his molten gaze back to the cat. "I ain't gonn' complain, though. Real nice of yah ta do it," and he really fucking wanted it, actually.^^

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The titan laid out the customs of wolves while Kuhn listened, his ear twitching in both confusion and mild annoyance, not knowing what to make of these supposed customs. "Really? I didn't know that... I could understand, taking a kill, but just walking through?" He answered, cutting through his boredom with the subject for the sake of his friend.

At the mention of his princessa his ears cupped up. "I guess... I mean her brother bit me", Attempting to make sense of it while showing off the scar on his neck. "But that was over a kill..."

It appeared that all at once, the cat was done with that conversation, standing to his feet. He was more interested in Tib and the skull. The big cat walked in a half circle around the wolf and the skull, dropping his gaze and appraising his handy work from a few angles. Finnaly, the tiger circled back around to the titan's side. Without much warning Kuhn, attempted to run his forehead up the side of the wolf's neck. Usually, such a feline greeting would be a bit more gentle, but with the titan, it was more of a manly headbump.

The wolf's compliment on his handy work only left him glowing, with a slight smile. He didn't feel the need to answer the why, it seemed obvious, and the tiger didn't want to get to sappy, he had an image to retain after all.

"Ya, looks done to me. It would mean alot for you to have it. " He stated, holding back some poorly concealed excitement.
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He knew that the barrier between species was a thing that caused irritation for Kuhn, understanding the different ways the two species worked was new to them both yet it seemed that it weighed heavily on how Kuhn approached a situation. He nodded slightly in affirmation, "it ain't done between wolves." Tiberius confirmed in a rumble, "only tha ones wit' invitation can come in an' even then, yah 'cause trouble and yah run tha risk of destroyin' trust." It displayed an obvious bout of disrespect when a wolf went against their alliances and perhaps Kuhn had not been knowing of it, given his feline nature but Valmua would have known that what she was enabling them both to do had been wrong. That was perhaps what annoyed Tiberius the most, that it seemed like she was actively abusing the trust between Kuhn and Shiroshika and also aiming to break it. For what reason, he supposed it did not matter -- she was just a chaos gremlin through and through.

Molten eyes drifted lower to the scar on the cats neck that he displayed in show, his nose twitching as he supplied, "some things ain't so different between cat an' wolf in tha' manner." 'Cause he was certain that Kuhn would give someone a sharp nip if they weren't trusted and attempted to eat his kill. Still, he hoped that Kuhn would begin to understand more and not go along with Valmua's plans when they came to Shiroshika, because he... he didn't want his friendship to be in competition between Pack loyalty and his own personal relationships. Though... in typical Tiberius nature as he felt a sense of protectiveness over his friends, he found he did not like that Kuhn had been harmed.

Kuhn stood and moved in a half-moon around Tiberius and his prized skull, the titan watching him curiously. It was so strange to him to maintain a friendship, the notion so foreign to him but he stood easily and relaxed as Kuhn moved to his side and -- surprised him, actually. The feline drew his forehead along his neck in something similar to a head bump and his lip twitched as he wondered if this was the way felines greeted each other but certainly, he hadn't been greeted quite like this from a wolf. Physical touch came in small bouts for the titan but he navigated the foreign land and allowed the touch, thinking that this was how friendships worked for cats. Tiberius tested the waters and leaned his head to bump against the feline, his tail twitching in curiosity as he wondered if he was doing it right.

He didn't answer the question in a blatant way, but instead he answered it without meaning to. It meant something to Kuhn for Tiberius to have it and after their solidification of them being friends, he supposed that this was the act of finality. "'Course i's gonna 'ave it," Tiberius rumbled as he lifted a thick paw to curl around the skull and draw it closer to his person, a steady sense of possessiveness curling through him at his first ever gift. "Thinkin' it's gonna look real nice in m'den," he mused as he cast his molten gaze to the feline, his features clear of his usual stress and instead, they looked open with the youth he so rarely felt. "I's appreciate it," how did cats show their gratification?

'Cause if he were fighting to get Kuhn to see how wolves acted, the least he could do was learn more about his own ways and use them in their interactions. That and he'd given him a real fuckin' nice gift -- with sentiment, mind you -- and he'd learn whatever Kuhn wanted to show him right now as result of it. ^^

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Even though his body language had showed his absolute disinterest in the conversation about piss borders, Tib pressed on elaborating further. Still Kuhn, couldn't wrap his head around what he had done wrong. If he had been invited, than what was the problem. If they had a problem with Valmua, shouldn't the talk to her? Even then Kuhn failed to see what she had done that had been so Villanous. It was really odd to him that he was supposed to speak for someone else, which was such a foreign concept to a cat.

As the big cat brushed his head across his friend, his whiskers could pick up his tension with the situation. He could immediately pick out that Tiberius wasn't used to something like that. He backed off just a bit, giving the Titian some time to process. Surprisingly, the wolf returned the gesture in his own way. With a warm chuff, Kuhn once again reciprocated the gesture, trading scent with his friend. As solitary as a cat might be, there was a meaning to this gesture: wearing the scent of your friends without shame. He would be proud to be associated with that Titian of a man named Tiberius.

Kuhn's gase landed once again with the skull, seeing the dark wolf pull it closer. A warm grin was plastered on the deadly cat's face, genuinely happy that the wolf was taking a liking to his handy work. Not wanting to make to much more of a fuss about his gift, he changed the subject. "So did you come all the way down here to educate me about the limitations of wolf piss, or do we wanna bag ourselves another one?"
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He had come here with a purpose.

He swore he had. Yet he had found himself off course as he learned the way of the feline and allowed himself to touch down in the physical language of another specie, readily accepted by the striped man as Tiberius looked to familiarise himself with Kuhn's ways. It was an interesting one, one that made sense, really, but perhaps not for a smaller wolf that he might ram his head into -- no, that was likely to hurt. Kuhn's flesh was made of muscle, taut and strong beneath his skin and thus, the two could be rougher together than most. He had been further distracted by the skull, having never been given a gift before and Tiberius had taken it into his clutches greedily, unwilling to give Kuhn any time to go back on the gesture.

Tiberius snorted as he rolled his molten gaze, the weight of his task, duty and life seemingly transported elsewhere for the brief march he had made into living in his youth, giving Kuhn a nod as he smirked, teeth peaking over his disfigured lips, "fuckin' impatient," the behemoth mused in play. "Yeah, alrigh'. More Boar, mate? Or yah wantin' ta expand our skills, aye?" Tiberius didn't know what he'd do with the skull whilst they went on their hunt but he would ensure that it was safe wherever he may leave it. ^^

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Kuhn watched his friend carefully from the corner of his eye. Secretly he was glad that this wolf was finnaly relaxing, not being so uptight. Lately, it seemed everything was just turning into business, and for now Kuhn was good just lounging around with the wolf.

Still sitting in his haunches, he was getting a kick out of how much the hardened man seemed to clutch his gift. Kuhn didn't even think he would like it this much. Their was something joyful about watching the strong and scarred wolf, clutch to the gift like a kitten.

"Well, the boar hunting is good down here. But if you want, we could head up to your neck of the woods for better luck with caribou." Kuhn suggested, before licking the back of his wrist in idle relaxation.
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