By Sarah Koh
At the end of the day, what do you have left? Tsume x Toboe
Disclaimer: Wolf's Rain does not belong to me.
Notes: Um . . . first Wolf's Rain fic. W00T.
It really pissed Tsume off.
Kiba was a brat compared to him -- a puking, mewling little wolf cub -- but he was the one who everyone obeyed, he was the goddamn alpha male.
Damn it. Kiba was the one to say "Let's look for Paradise," and the rest of them just followed -- what the hell was Kiba, their leader? Not that Tsume believed in Paradise -- fairytales were for idiots, not him.
There was Kiba. There was Hige. And then there was Toboe.
Fine. So he treated the kid like he was crap. But Toboe deserved it -- with that stupid, innocent look, and the puppy-ish face. Damn it, he didn't even act like a wolf; Toboe was too damn sensitive, with all his whining about people and animals dying, and his fixation on the human girl -- Liga, or something.
Tsume refused to believe that he was jealous. Toboe was just a cub, and a runt at that. No doubt he'd meet some other human and fall over himself trying to impress her, mess up, and Tsume would have to come in and rescue Toboe's ass again.
Stupid, stupid, stupid Toboe. Didn't he know what was good for him?
Tsume went with Kiba and Hige and -- yeah, Toboe too -- because Kiba had to run off his mouth again, make some smart-ass remark like "You scared?" So what the hell is Tsume supposed to say to that? "Yeah. You wish."
Jump.
Land.
Run.
Tsume abso-fucking-lutely hated Kiba. And Hige, because Hige was too devoted to their "alpha leader." Toboe, simply because Toboe was too damn perceptive, could see right to the heart of the matter of things with his wide, gold eyes, and he didn't know when to shut up.
And Toboe was too much like that other orange-haired boy -- the one who let go when Tsume went to help him. It wasn't Tsume's fault, it was the boy's, because he shouldn't have let go. So what if instead of the human hand he'd been expecting didn't come, and instead it was the jaws of a wolf closing around his shoulder? He should have recognized what was going on, should have realized Tsume was trying to help.
Tsume didn't let grief or guilt nag away at him -- grief was only crocodile tears shed at the right moment, and guilt was just repentance for what was already too late. But damn it, Toboe brought it all back, when he slipped and fell -- and when he didn't let go.
That was why Tsume went. Because he couldn't let Toboe die at the hands of two wolves who were chasing after a dream. Because he'd rescued Toboe once, and Toboe was a part of his pack.
And Tsume never let his pack die.
They ran together, all four of them, Kiba and Tsume vying for the lead, Hige and Toboe trailing behind, and . . .
This was right. This was how it was supposed to be.
It was nice, though Tsume would never let anyone know it, having someone -- someones -- to come back to, at the end of the day.
Even if one of them was a stupid, orange-furred wolf cub.
Fin
{smacks head repeatedly}
Welp. Review?