Kitsunegari (July catch-all)

[detectiveofthewest]

A: After the full moon

Heiji had been lucky to walk away from his run-in with Tal as well as he had -- a werewolf during this particular time of year was even more dangerous than usual. But he was still badly hurting, and he did not yet want to return to the Other Realm, where one of his own kind might see an excellent opportunity to take advantage of his wounds. Nor could he wander the streets as a human slowly bleeding through his clothing.

So instead he limped along quietly in the early hours of the morning in the least energy-intensive form he could. A small black fox, looking for a burrow to hole up in and lick his wounds.

B: You are cordially invited (July 7)

In light of his new title as well as his decision to stay in London for the foreseeable future, Heiji had had a home constructed for himself in Faery -- a little out of the way for his non-fae acquaintances to come visit him, but much less likely to arouse undue interest from any neighbors. It was a Japanese-style house, of course, with a small pond and cherry trees outside the windows.

Now he sat out the steps, sipping at his sake and waiting for company.

C: Fox hunt (Evening in Richmond Park, July 11th-ish)

Hoofbeats sounded in the distance, accompanied by the distant baying of hounds. A flit of red fur through the grass, and then the sounds of the dogs took on a new, excited cast. Panicked and frightened, the young fox ran blindly through the trees. The paths looked the same, the woods were unfamiliar. Meanwhile, the sounds of her pursuit was getting closer...

Heiji ran through the park, looking for any sign, but he'd lost sight of the hunting party. All he had to go on now was the baying of the hounds. There were thousands of foxes in London, and why hadn't she listened to him?

He grimaced as he charged through the grass. "Of all the rotten luck...!"

D: Choose your own adventure :')

Comments

[tippytoes]

The pound isn't even open this late.

Malia starts walking, cradling him against her chest, his head on her shoulder.

"I probably have towels or something in my hotel room," she says, ignoring the fact that at least one person turns to look at her for talking to her pet like it can understand her. "At the very least you can bleed all over those. What happened, anyway?"

[detectiveofthewest]

SAFE.

Since he was already partially committed, Heiji didn't try to escape once she had him over her shoulder. The tip of his tail twitched slightly in response to her question, but he couldn't really speak in this form.

A hotel room might work out, though. Maybe he could hide under the bed. Alternatively, he supposed he could try and revert back to human form, though that had its own problems. Shapeshifters, as Malia had demonstrated, didn't keep their clothes when they changed forms. Did that mean he'd have to change naked? Awkward.

[tippytoes]

She wouldn't have let him go even if he'd tried to escape. He was hurt and she wasn't going to just let him lick his wounds.

The hotel isn't far off, and Malia just strides across the lobby to the elevators, ignoring the stare of the desk clerk. She presses the button, and leans back against the wall of the elevator.

"There's towels and stuff up there. You can take a shower if you want."

[detectiveofthewest]

By now, Heiji was draped over Malia's shoulder like a fur stole, front paws braced loosely behind her shoulder. His ears pricked in response to her words. Once they got to the hotel room, he wriggled free and landed on the carpeted floor, squeezing in behind the bathroom door to use as a screen before he returned to human form.

"...Thanks," he said. "I owe ya." There was the sound of a towel being taken down from the shelf; he wrapped it around his waist.

And then, inexplicably: "Do you have any tweezers?"

[tippytoes]

"Tweezers?" Does Malia strike you as the kind of person who would have those, Heiji? Her brows are on point, sure, but she's not the 'carry a makeup bag around' type of girl.

"I don't know. Maybe under the sink?"

[detectiveofthewest]

Her brows were so on point. Heiji actually carried around a pair under normal circumstances (DETECTIVE STUFF), but he'd probably lost it at some point during the night. There was the sound of rifling through the bathroom drawer, which stopped abruptly once Heiji located the item in question.

Then the sound of something dropping into the sink. Glass against porcelain, but only one fragment, followed by another after a few hesitant seconds. This was Heiji slowly picking slivers of car windshield out of his back.

"What happened," he said, now that he could answer her question, "Was I ran into a werewolf."

[tippytoes]

And now you have one shapeshifter trying to barge into the bathroom on him.

"What!? Who!?"

[detectiveofthewest]

"Argh!" Heiji wasn't ready for the intrusion, to say the least. When the bathroom door swung open, it struck him in the shoulder, knocking him off balance. Instinctively, he grabbed for the towel rack. It pulled off the wall; he ended up lying on his side on the bathroom tiles.

Why was this happening. Had Stiles's luck rubbed off on him.

"Ow... dammit. He ain't with East End. Probably no one you know."

[tippytoes]

"How do you know?" She's standing in the doorway, clearly unimpressed with his display of grace.

"Derek needs to know if there's a werewolf out there attacking people."

[detectiveofthewest]

"I know," said Heiji, looking rather reproachfully at Malia. "Besides, he ain't responsible for every rogue werewolf out there, is he?"

Not that he had any idea. But he couldn't just blow Tal's cover if indeed Tal operated under a cover of some kind.

Now that he'd regained his balance, Heiji sat himself on the edge of the tub, manipulated the tweezers around another piece of glass, and yanked it out. Apparently, he shouldn't have worried so much about harming Tal.

[tippytoes]

"No, but if there's a rogue werewolf out there, he should know. It gives the rest of them a bad name, like if some shapeshifter ran around murdering people."

Because Malia's still working under the assumption that that's what Heiji is.

"If that happens enough times, then people starting getting suspicious of us, too."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Derek ain't king of the wolves, far as I know, and if he wants to know about it, he can ask me himself. Besides, it wasn't a rogue. Ain't going to throw him under the bus for this, no matter how many scones ya got."

He dropped the piece of glass in the tub. "I'll talk to him about it."

[tippytoes]

The fact she doesn't like that answer is clear on her face. Malia leans against the doorframe, crossing her arms. Her eyes flit to the glass in the tub at the noise it makes, and then back to Heiji.

"What'd he do to you?"

[detectiveofthewest]

"Put me through a window. It was my fault. I shouldn't have underestimated him." But he'd been trying not to hurt Tal, which now seemed sort of a ludicrous concern to have.

"Never fought with a werewolf before." GO AHEAD, MOCK HIM.

[tippytoes]

"You're lucky you lived," is all she says, moving forward to grab another towel. "Tonight's a really bad night to go messing with wolves. It's why I'm not at home."

[detectiveofthewest]

At home? i.e. with the wolves?

"Do you live with Derek?" Not that Heiji had ever been to Derek's place, but wolves all stuck together, right? If Malia was tight with him/them, she also probably hung around the pack's home.

[tippytoes]

She assumes he's a shapeshifter. It's the only reason she said that at all and she takes his question to be judgemental. She knows there's very little love lost between werewolves and shapeshifters. Her mother made that clear.

"Yeah," she answers, with the tone of 'you got a problem with that?'. "He's my cousin."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Your cousin?" Heiji looked at Malia, trying to find some similarity, some familial resemblance between Malia and the man he'd met only once or twice.

Maybe the... no. How about the... no. Well, they did have some pretty distinctive eyebrows? They were both awkward to talk to?

"Does he involve you in pack affairs?"

[tippytoes]

The Hale brow game is the strongest brow game in the entirety of the UK, it's true.

At his question, Malia shakes her head.

"Not really. I mean, I'm not actually a werewolf. It's probably better if he doesn't."

[detectiveofthewest]

"But you're family, right? And you're living with him. Someone in that position could easily overhear somethin' sensitive, so he must trust you."

Especially with those coyote ears. She could probably hear a can opener from across the house. Apartment. Whatever.

[tippytoes]

"He trusts me," she says, the implication being that there are people who don't.

"All of the pack lives there. It helps keeps us closer together and prevents them from attacking people on full moons."

[detectiveofthewest]

But not enough for them to entirely avoid attacking Malia, it seemed. Heiji looked at her, frowning a little as he made up his mind.

"Well, since you're part of the same pack and all, I guess I can just tell you. I'm not a shapeshifter. Well... I am a shapeshifter, but not a human one. I'm fae."

[tippytoes]

She jerks her head back in surprise, narrowing her eyes.

"You're not like any fae I've heard about." Granted, all she's heard is stories, but.

[detectiveofthewest]

"Well, you shouldn't believe everything ya hear. I mean, not all vampires run around sparkling and makin' out with teenagers." The cuts from which he'd removed the earliest pieces of glass were already starting to heal, though the blood that had welled up at the site of each wound served to obscure this.

"I talked with your cousin some weeks ago to make an agreement with the fae. Stiles set up the meeting. So I guess that makes us allies."