graveexcitement | hypmic supernatural creatures au (matenrou)

posting this snippet here mostly because i'm too lazy to make a new gdrive folder for hypmic. 759 words, not finished by any means. first thing i've written this month.

When they had first met, Jakurai had noticed, distantly, that Doppo smelled faintly like dogs.

From this he had concluded only that Doppo probably owned a dog, though he must have been very careful about making sure to keep any stray hairs off of his clothes. He didn't put much more thought into it.

When Doppo introduced Hifumi to him, he registered that Hifumi also smelled like dog, but it would be more accurate to say that he recognized that Hifumi smelled like Doppo, and so he too smelled like dog, underneath his cologne.

It made sense. They lived together, after all, so their similar scents weren't a surprise. And the first time he visited their apartment, he found that they did indeed have dog beds and dog toys. The only thing missing was the actual dog -- but Doppo explained, nervously, that they didn't own one of their own, but they looked after Hifumi's brother's dogs whenever he was out of town.

Jakurai wondered that they didn't adopt one of their own -- surely Hifumi at least could have afforded it -- but their opposing schedules made looking after a pet difficult, he supposed.

He didn't own any pets himself; he had had cats in the past, but dogs seemed to distrust him. It was to be expected; many animals shied away from those of his kind.

So he didn't suspect anything until that night.

He'd invited both of his teammates to go night fishing, but they'd declined. He'd considered going on his own, but it felt less appealing without Hifumi there (Doppo had yet to come with them on one of those outings.) So instead, he'd wandered into the forest by the lake, observing. It was a lively enough forest; not exactly undisturbed by humankind, but still surviving, for the time being.

The growling, when he heard it, straightened his spine. It took him a moment to realize it was directed at him; he was unused to being targeted by beasts. But then he turned, and all became clear.

Across the clearing stood a pair of wolves, teeth bared. But ordinary wolves would not have tried to threaten him, not unless he had struck first, and even then, a single pair of wolves would have fled. That these two were aggressive towards him, and their sheer size, meant only one thing: Werewolves.

Jakurai let out a long breath. Vampires and werewolves were natural enemies; rival predators, who each were one of the only true threats to the other. He had no desire to fight with these two, and on any other night perhaps they would have passed him by; but on the full moon, their beastly instincts were at the forefront of their minds, and they had recognized a threat. His hand falling to his hip, where he carried his hypnosis mic. Hypothetically, it should work against a werewolf, even in their wolf form, but he had never had occasion to test it. It was all too possible that it would be effective against the wolf's human mind, but that the beast's instincts would drown it out.

The wolves weren't attacking yet, though, just growling. There were only two of them, and no more emerged from the trees; a duo, then. Likely the reason they had yet to attack: two on one was still far from an assured victory.

There was something about them that was familiar, however. One was a dusty blonde; the other's coat was a deep russet. And their eyes: blue for the russet one, startling gold for the blonde one. And their scents...

Jakurai abruptly felt very foolish.

Well. These two just get more interesting, don't they?

Slowly, he kneeled on the soft earth. "It's all right," he called out. "I'm not going to hurt you. It's me, Hifumi-kun, Doppo-kun. It's Jakurai." He stretched out a hand. "It's Sensei."

The wolves didn't move for a minute. Then Hifumi cocked his head, and stalked closer. If Jakurai's heart still functioned, he was sure it would have skipped a beat as the great beast grew closer, teeth still bared.

Hifumi regarded him for a minute and sniffed his outstretched hand. Then Hifumi gave it a long lick, before looking over at Doppo and barking once.

Doppo immediately bounded over, making his own inspection of Jakurai. As soon as he had smelled him up close, he began to whine.

Leave it to Doppo to retain his anxiety even as a wolf. "It's all right," Jakurai said. "Nothing happened, so you don't need to worry about it."