fly in that tuxedo

All welcome. Daighre is recently injured with a puncture bite mark on his right shoulder and a torn scruff. Both wounds are scabbed over and in the early process of healing.

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The sun overhead set.

And with it, the ocean started to glow.

Waves of glowing, flowing blue as iridescence and bioluminescence rolled onto shore. The water breaking, lapping, quiet and muted.

The air cold.

Wet, and salted.

He grunted, as he took one step down the shore’s incline, from grass to sand.

Then another.

His ears flattened against the sides of his head. Teeth gritted, inside his pressed gums. The skin of his shoulder—no, the shitty fucking scab of his shoulder—taut.

Slow, and steady.

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Her trip had begun as a simple patrol, though as she reached the southern edges she found her paws pulling further. Honestly, the shadow didn't really question it letting her body do the work. Part of her wondered how Crux faired, though by the time she reached the timeless woods only stale scents remained... it was ominous seeing a place you once lived vacated and empty. The dripping red leaves did the woods no favor either as she skirted the darkened woods. Once curiosity had prodded her to watch the unusual flora, but now the woods almost gave her the creeps.

By the time the sun had met the earth she had wandered all the way to vaguely familiar shores. Had the sun not been setting she might not recognize it, but even with the faint light of day that remained she could see the blue glow blur beneath the water and dot the sand. It was like a perfect mirror of the sky above, only brighter from proximity.

Had she been alone maybe she would have stopped to watch or figure out why the fuck the water here glowed, but there was a shift of sand behind her drawing her eye. Some man with stained fur lurched in her direction, a grimace plain on his face as he worked around what seemed to be a rather large injury. He almost looked familiar...maybe she would have lingered on that thought had his injuries not been more pressing. “You good there, buddy?”

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His feet touched sand—

And he realized, just than, that he was not, in fact, alone. No, there was some fucking runt—born black and grey with yellow eyes—already there.

He had just been too fucking busy watching the fucking ground to have actually paid attention to the shit that fucking mattered.

And it was there he remained, stoic and stiff and pained on shores that glowed like the stars above. Except the stars didn't have to deal with fucking dumbasses like her bothering them.

“Yes.” He grunted, gritted, between pressed teeth.

He was fucking fine.

Perfect, even.

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His lie was as transparent as the strain in his voice as he either responded from pain or annoyance. Or both. Whatever crawled up his ass and died now sent his pent-up emotions her way for merely existing. “Right. So am I ignoring all that—” She'd wave a paw gesturing to his injuries before meeting his gaze again with a raised brow, “orrr do you want me to look for something that might help?” By no means was she an expert, but she could probably dig up something to help with the pain or infection. Of course, she could easily walk away and pretend they never met, but he hadn't pissed her off yet to turn a blind eye to his needs.

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“Fuck off, runt.” He growled. and the corner of his lip twitched. Threatened, to peel and curl. His hackles raised.

Seriously, he was fucking hurt, not fucking rendered invalid.

And he was there, wasn’t he? There, to wash the big bitch’s infection from his skin, her fucking cat’s too.

“I said I was fucking fine.”

Oh, or was she deaf and dumb?

He walked, stiff-legged and tensed, the motion limited, in his right leg, to the ocean's edge.

He bared his teeth, as he passed.

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“The fuck's your deal man? You can just say no.” Her own fangs bared at the sight of rising hackles. All she had done was ask if he wanted help. If not, whatever, no skin off her back. She didn't even know the guy. If this was how he reacted to a kind gesture she could only bet the stinkbug up his ass was what gave him his wounds in the first place. “Right, so let me guess, you're going to let weird glowing ocean water disinfect that for you? Ocean is full of shit dude. Plus whatever the hell is lighting up the beach is likely not something you want in your body, but by all means, go ahead. I'll be happy to watch so I can tell the next 愚か者 — fool”

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“I said no.” He snarled.

Or was she too fucking deaf and dumb to understand anything beyond a simple yes and a simple no? And what a shame, she was also too fucking sensitive to be anything but a useless fucking bitch, psychotic and crazed. Insecure enough, to not be able to handle a simple fucking no.

The world would be better off without her pathetic fucking 'help.'

His ears rolled back.

His teeth bared, with his lips pulled back.

“Hurry up and fuck off.”

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Okay. So he's an idiot and an ass. Kei's ears dropped back just as fast as she stared unamused by his flash of ivory. Anyone could flash a fang and think they're hot shit, didn't mean he was any good with them. “Yeah, don't think so twat. You're the one walkin' up to me at this point and if there's somethin' in the water that's gonna eat your flesh alive, I wanna watch.” I mean she didn't know that for a fact, but only one way to find out and she already had such a willing participant to act as her test subject. If it did then she was right in not using the weird-ass glowing water for disinfecting wounds, but maybe it would do the opposite and speed up the healing process.

Rather or not he kept moving she'd step up to shove her face in his with a curl of her own lip, “And don't threaten people when ya don't know what they're capable of. Unless you're actually lookin' to die.” She'd snort backing off though she kept her gaze glued to the male as she stepped a few paces down the shore. She had no intention of actually leaving with her own curiosities to fill about the glowing shores. It was almost like nothing she had ever seen before, but then again her family hadn't been very close to the ocean. Maybe it wasn't as uncommon as she believed it to be. She had seen mushrooms that glowed before, but they weren't overly common either.

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The dumb bitch got in his face—

And he snarled. Snarled, with his ears pinned back, back against his head. His upper lip curled and peeled. Teeth and gumline, exposed. His tongue pressed forward, against the backs of his teeth.

“Whatever.” He huffed when she stepped back. Distance, between them. Further down the shore.

His ears still flattened back against his head.

He licked his lips.

Settled, slow and pained, to the sand. First, to his elbows, then his stomach. His head rested on his front leg.

He watched her, from the corner of his eye.

His tail flat on the sand.

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The world hated him.

And he hated it.

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Of course he flashed his fangs, she would have done the same, and she did in response. For once, she had the restraint to walk away if only because there was no joy in beating a wolf who's already lost, but even as she paced down the beach she could still feel his eyes. Only once she had put a considerable amount of distance between them would Kei look back to see the man laying along the sand, his body blending almost like a beached log in the dimming light.

“What, all that just to give up already?” He wasn't going to die that wound had already scabbed over. Maybe if he caught some nasty infection but there was something more going on here. “Dude, just drop the ego or whatever. I'm not going to judge you.” Anymore than she had at least. But that wasn't the way of the Honiyah was it? Quickly the shadow rolled her eyes at herself as she swung her body around to look at him once more.

Maybe she was homesick for all the effort she was putting into some random guy she didn't really care about...but it was the right thing to do. No matter his background, no matter the reasons for his wounds, he was in need. “I don't know what you did or what bug crawled up your ass to put you in such a piss poor mood, but it doesn't matter. I know what it's like to be alone.”

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No, he understood, now.

He understood his place in the equation. His place, in the world, and the role he played. Not the hero, not the martyr, not the saviour, but—

The blight.

The stain.

The symptom and growing malaise of everything wrong.

She threatened him with death. The fucking birds in the fucking trees had threatened him with death, the exact same fucking way he threatened others.

What if he did it?

What if he took the advice he so freely fucking gave, and spared everyone the fucking headache of dealing with him since he was apparently so fucking awful? Every fucking option—every fucking decision—he made in his shitty fucking life was wrong.



He wouldn’t fuck it up.



He shifted his back legs beneath him.

His head rested on his front legs.

He ignored her.

The facsimile of sleep.

His face tensed. His ears pressed back, against his head.

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“Seriously?” Now the little asshole didn't even bother with a response. Instead, he shifted silently as his eyes closed and the rest was lost in what rays of light still hovered on the horizon. This was a waste of her time. Yet it annoyed her more to walk away and give him what he wanted, whatever that entailed once she was gone, so she only stood and stared. If he wanted to act like a child she couldn't stop him, but she may be able to out patience him.

After a span of silence, she'd pace closer leaving enough room between them to not crowd the dude before turning to sit and look out at the sea. “Look I don't care about whatever it is you got goin' on. If you want to talk I don't have shit to do, if not, no skin off my back. This little bite and bark path you're on though? It's gonna kill you. And I think you know that. So why are you throwing everything away?”

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He heard her move.

The soft sound of her footfalls against the sand. Further than closer still, and the final sound of her sitting.

He inhaled.

Exhaled.

And shifted to rest his head more comfortably on his front right leg, his head angled away from her.

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Alright, they were doing this the hard way then. Kei watched him even after he had turned to ignore her until it was clear he wasn't moving. Letting a huff through her nose, she too would lay on speckled glowing sands resting her head atop her paws. She didn't expect him to open up right away or anything, and even if he chose not to at all that was fine. Sometimes words weren't needed, and as she said before, she had nothing else to do right now so...maybe she'd even try mediation again.

Like her unnamed company, Kei closed her eyes though kept her ears alert as she listened to her surroundings. Of course, this guy could still try and jump her under the guise of surprise, but she wouldn't be so easy to trick. She wasn't listening just for him, she listened to everything.

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Ik daig is a little ass so if there's nowhere for this thread to go we can do a time skip or something say kei fell asleep and he ran off or something

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