singillatim | he's got that dog in him

What's Crozier doing? Is this... what, time for him to get his head scratched? He's never really gotten his head scratched before. Hickey moves his head so that it's under Crozier's hand. He adjusts his head for perfect scratches.

And as Crozier scratches him, Hickey's tail starts to wag. This feels phenomenal!

If anything this just confirms to Crozier that the wolf has more dog in him than wild creature. He scratches the top of its head and behind the ears, figuring it may enjoy that sort of thing as it’s enjoyed pretty much everything else.

“You’re a good wolf, aren’t you?” he says quietly. “Forgive my misgivings. Most wolves I’ve encountered haven’t been nearly as friendly.”

It feels kind of weird being called a 'good wolf.' No, he's not, he's a horrible wolf and he's trying his best at something he knows he's just okay at. But Crozier is scratching him behind his ears and that feels phenomenal. So don't mind Hickey as his tail continues to wag and he leans into the scratches, pressing his weight against Crozier.

Yeah, he's a good wolf. He'll be an even better wolf if these head scratches keep coming.

Strange, strange animal. He chuckles as the wolf pushes against him. “Have I made a new friend? Or is it your habit to go from cabin to cabin begging for scraps? I can’t tell if it’s clever or lazy.”

Fuckin' clever, that's what he is. As Crozier mentions 'lazy,' Hickey lets out a little huff of disapproval. He's clever! He's absolutely clever! Managed to get into this, managed to figure out everything here, managed to work his way into Crozier's house, wasn't he?

Hickey moves to rub up against Crozier's leg, enjoying the hell out of this physical contact and these ear scratches.

Did that wolf just sneeze? Sounded like it, but clearly it isn't bothered by it considering it's still pushing against his body. He grunts softly and tries to push the wolf away slightly. "Easy there, boy," he says, deciding that this wolf is definitely a 'he'. "Easy. I'm still a little sore. You'll hurt me all over again."

He gives the wolf another few thumps on its side and then scratches its back.

Wait, shit, those back scratches feel great. Hickey lets out a little whuff of approval, tail thumping against the floor, enjoying the hell out of the scratches and the thumps.

...and you know what. Why not see how this feels? Hickey looks over at Crozier before rolling over, presenting the man with his belly to rub. Scratch him there next, please!

The wolf offers him its belly and Crozier frowns. Submissive thing. It reminds him of a sycophantic lieutenant, and he chuckles a little to himself as he leans out to rub at the wolf's belly.

"Good boy," he says. "You're a good boy. You can stay a while, if you'd like."

Good boy?

Huh. Well. That's certainly giving Hickey a feeling that he hasn't thought before. Usually he's the one who implements this sort of thing. He is the devious seducer after all. He makes the first move, he brings people into his fold, he's the one who would be metaphorically calling them a good boy.

But hearing that from Crozier? Hearing the man that Hickey's desperately been trying to impress, to gain the focus of, hearing him call Hickey 'good boy'? It's fucking phenomenal.

His tail is wagging a mile a minute as he adjusts his position so that Crozier can scratch his belly. He'll do whatever's needed just to hear those words again. 'Good boy.' Fucking phenomenal.

The door isn't locked.

Raju's steps slow down, though he still isn't as silent on the snow as he wants to be. He ties the fish onto one of the straps around him, trying to see anything through that slight gap between the doorframe and the door. The bow is in his hand, arrow in place, and he uses it to nudge the door further open.

He stops, still tense, alert in every part of him, but...

He stares.

"...Francis?"

Ah, Rama’s home. Of course he is. This must look like the picture of insanity, Crozier scratching this wild animal with fangs on its belly.

“All’s well,” he calls out to him, “you can set your bow down. It’s quite tame.”

And honestly, kind of a story, but he hopes Rama can see he’s thoroughly surveyed the situation and found it not an immediate threat.

“Found him out on the porch, scratching and whining at the door, begging for scraps.”

Wait, Raju? Crozier's living with Raju? That's...unexpected. Honestly, there are worse people to be with. Hickey's dealt with Raju once before, during that mess with the kid in the burning house.

The wolf looks up from the floor giving Raju a once over. Hickey doesn't really do anything. Not yet. He wants to see what will happen. However, he will lean into Crozier's scratches. Yeah, that's right. He's getting love and affection. And will absolutely be eavesdropping on the conversation.

Tame. Raju frowns, bow lowering as he considers it. There'd been stray dogs in Delhi while he'd been living there, but he'd never paid them much attention. Tame dogs even less. And wolves were always far off things, dangers to be careful of and, here, to be fought off sometimes.

It's a little big, isn't it, to be tamed? Small for a wolf, the ones he's seen here, but too large for a dog. But there were people who'd tamed a few of the larger dogs, when he'd still gone into town to see them about.

The bow lowers a little more. After a moment he takes the arrow from it, puts it away, and lets the bow hang from its strap.

"It must have been locked out some place, and come here instead. Certainly seems comfortable inside." He moves tentatively closer, frown deepening not at the wolf, but at his next thought: "Do you think we'll have to ask around, in case someone's missing him?"

He doesn't like the idea, and sounds it. Doesn't like the idea of talking to anyone else, even now, who might have voted a certain way in that sorry excuse for a town hall.

"I wasn't planning on letting him inside," Crozier says, not wanting Rama to think he's just in the habit of letting in stray animals. He has far more sense than that.

He shakes his head a little but keeps scratching and petting the wolf. Honestly, it's a little soothing. Poor Neptune had been neglected in those final years, but he had loved the beast. He just wished he'd shown it better, given him a little more affection and attention. He wished he hadn't let him wander off in that goddamned camp.

"Mutt jumped up and licked my face, then dashed in before I could swat it back out. He must be someone's pet." He also doesn't sound very thrilled at the prospect. "We'll leave the door open, he might go back the way he came."

That way neither of them have to go to Milton and ask around after a wolf.

Hmm, that would work. Leaving the door open? That means after a few hours or so, he can trot out, find those clothes he stashed in the woods, get dressed, and return to town, none the wiser.

That being said. Idly Hickey wonders if Raju would give him scratches as well. He rolls over, standing back up, before he trots over to Raju and looks at him with the biggest, most innocent eyes a goddamn wolf can muster.

This is information gathering. Nothing more. Certainly not an invitation for scratches.

"Oh," Raju says, looking down at it. He realises he's holding his hands a little away from his body, as if he'll need to reach for his bow again. But it is a wolf, and part of him does expect it to try to eat him. The size, the teeth; this, surely, is something he's going to have to fight off. But here it is calmly looking up at him, and he's never kept pets, and for a moment he stands there and isn't sure what to do.

The closest they'd ever gotten were the goats when predators had gotten too close and the shed still needed fixing, keeping them inside for a while. But Raju had always ignored them, when he could. The goats had generally done what they liked.

Ridiculous. It isn't as if he doesn't know how to pet an animal.

He puts a hand on its head but, after a moment, that doesn't quite seem like enough. He pats it a couple times and then clears his throat, raising his eyebrows at Francis and glancing meaningfully down at the wolf, then staring at Francis again. Francis had been very comfortable with the thing only a moment ago. He'll know what to do.

It’s like he now has two creatures in his home that don’t know how to act like their natural selves. He chuckles warmly at Rama’s obvious discomfort with this whole thing.

“You could try to feed him,” he suggests, “but I think he’s fine with a few lazy scratches to the head.”

He gets up and goes to take Rama’s bow from his hands, wanting to hang it up by the doorway where they usually keep their weapons. “Hunt didn’t prove fruitful?”

What sort of half-assed scratch is that? Hickey stays next to Raju, nudging his hand with his head, as if trying to convince him that hey, you could pet him a lot better, try for a second round at scratches.

But in reality, he's quietly listening. They're close enough that Raju's hunting for Crozier? That he's sharing food? What the fuck, how come he didn't know that before now?

Hickey's trying to seem calm and nonchalant, but he's keeping an ear open for any new information.

"Mm." Raju watches Francis put the bow away. It's been getting to him a little lately, keeping it so far away from him when he's inside, and part of him wants to keep it on him. But he's spent enough time thinking about Francis' near death and everything that'd followed and doesn't particularly want to bring it up now, the danger and the injury and everything that hadn't resulted from it, everything that hasn't changed. He doesn't want to pull all that into the air again just to explain. Particularly not when Francis seems so relaxed.

The head under his hand nudging his palm distracts him. It certainly is tame, isn't it?

Scratching the head, not patting it. He can do that.

"Nothing in your traps," he confirms while his fingers try moving through the fur carefully and slowly, not sure of the creature's temperament, tame as it seems. "And it seemed like it might be faster to fish than try tracking anything, if I got lucky."

His free hand raises the fish tied to him and he smiles, pleased with himself and hoping the distraction of the fish will mean he doesn't have to bring up just why he still doesn't want to spend too much time away. There's more than one reason to want to keep Francis in his line of sight, after all, and only one comes close to the topic he's already decided it isn't the time to go into.

He knows Ram well enough by now that he’d like to sleep and eat with that bow strapped to his back, but this is good for them both. They’re in their home and it’s safe and secure…despite the presence of the wolf in their midst begging for scratches, anyway, and it doesn’t help anyone’s mental state to be on their guard constantly.

But thankfully there are fish! He’ll happily celebrate a successful fishing venture. “A fine haul,” he smiles, picking up the bundle of fish and waiting for Ram to untie the bunch from himself. He leans in close as he does so, his attention on Ram’s dimples and the way his eyes crinkle when he’s pleased with himself.

Edited 2024-07-16 00:39 (UTC)

Oh what the fuck is that smile? Hickey's never seen Crozier's eyes crinkle like that. What the fuck does Raju have to make him smile like that?

Without thinking, Hickey kind of fails at the act. He stares down Crozier, absolute judgement in his wolf eyes. It's hard to tell why, but the dog absolutely does not approve of this.

Raju's smile deepens as he holds Francis' gaze. He leans forward slowly, as if his body's doing it on its own—

The wolf's head moves oddly under his hand and Raju looks down, frowning at it for a moment. It isn't Raju that's got its attention just now which means, he thinks, he isn't doing anything wrong. So that's something. But he isn't sure what this is supposed to mean. What do dogs like? What do wolves like?

Well. Animals like to eat, don't they? And Francis did just pick up the fish. "Tell the wolf it can't have those," he says, lifting his hand from the wolf's head so he can untie the line, letting Francis take the fish. "That's tomorrow's breakfast. You said it was begging for scraps; you didn't feed it, did you? Maybe it thinks all our fish is its now."

He grins, more teasing Francis than anything else. It'd be a problem, if that was the case, but they can deal with it when it becomes one.

The wolf's sudden change in body language is a bit disconcerting, but Ram is probably right that it's the fish in his hand. "I might have fed him," he admits sheepishly, lifting the fish away from the wolf's face and hanging the lot by the fire. "I thought he might have been malnourished - he's small for a wolf, isn't he?"

Crozier pauses to wash his hand in their basin, glancing over his shoulder at Rama and the animal. The wolf still doesn't seem all that dangerous to him, considering it didn't immediately lunge towards the fish or bare its teeth.

He smiles a little again, expression fond. "What should we call him?"

It's a damn shame that Hickey can't really speak in this form. No, he doesn't want that fish! And he's not small! Fuck you, he's perfectly normal for a wolf!

But when Crozier mentions naming him, Hickey realizes what this means. He's going to try his hardest to keep his wolf life and his person life as separate as possible. Billy's the only one who knows right now, and Hickey wants to keep it that way. However, he knows this place is ridiculous. There's a high chance someone will find out and if Crozier or Raju give him a stupid name, it'll be perfect for teasing. And the last thing Hickey wants is to have someone call him a ridiculous dog name.

So he tries his best to look as strong and imposing as possible. He looks over at Crozier, obviously preening, and lets out a low, deep woof. You should call him something imposing. Something strong. Please give him a good name.

Raju grimaces at the wolf when it makes that noise. It's a noise that makes a part of him want to get his bow again, and convinces the rest of him that it's still trying to beg for food.

"Call him?" he asks, bemused. "I thought we were leaving the door open so it goes home. If you give it a name you're going to keep feeding it, and then it'll never go."

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