ninefox | Fine Zinc Teeth

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Fine Zinc Teeth

There was a time Jedao would have said that half a century was barely any time; less than a mortal life, not more than two generations. But the world has changed so much since he first put the Americans' uniform on. Even the uniform has changed - they don't call dance halls dance halls any more, for another thing. But the smell of the place - sweat, desire, alcohol - that much is the same.

He slinks in under a stranger's face, although he doesn't disguise his own scent when he smiles, glittering, at the bouncer: a flashed lure that Fives might not even notice or recognize, let alone pursue. It took a few months to get someone to handle all the things which apparently needed handling for his "retirement", and a few more to track down one particular squad of decommissioned weretroops, out of thousands, mostly paperless, in the busiest city this side of the Pacific. But Jedao did find them.

He dances without keeping track of the time, lets his face slowly slide back to its default arrangement, lets his spine relearn how to hold him up without being army rigid. He has several drinks - people buy them for him, which is nice; one or two of them he even dances with until they can't keep up with him any more. Fives rotates from the receiving line onto the floor as the night wears on and patrons get drunker, and he maneuvers himself into Fives' line of view, always moving, twisting, flashing glances that catch on Fives' eyes as the beat hits. Slowly, as if by the whim of the music, he draws closer.

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Tup swallows hard and chews at his bottom lip again and starts up the stairs before answering.

"Thank you, sir." He tips his head just a little, making tentative eye contact. It's nothing like the military bearing he was trained into, or that his brothers still display, but he's forgotten a lot of that too. Not all of it, but enough it's not his automatic default the way it still is theirs.

He pauses at the door leading out onto the roof, squares his shoulders, and finds the nerve to fully face the General, to look him in the eye and smile tentatively. "I wouldn't have made a soldier again, but... I love this life. My garden and my classes and my brothers. Thank you for giving me that chance."

Jedao smiles back, soft and strange.

"I don't...often get to save people. I'm very glad it could be you. Thank you for - taking it. For making something good."

Tup ducks his head, not embarrassed at all but suddenly hiding a smile. "If you don't do it often than you must have saved almost all of it for my family." Not just him, but Echo and Dogma and Fives... especially Fives. Because he's heard how the general kept him from the firing squad after the horrible the hellish mess with Krell that ruined Dogma, as well as when he'd fallen ill and Fives had come so close to getting himself decommissioned in his single-minded insistence on saving him. "So... thank you again. For my brothers."

He pauses with his hand still on the door, his smile gentle as DB waited patiently at his heels. "I think Dogma will want to thank you too, he just... needed a little more time." And so Echo had brought him up here, to the garden, and now Tup opens the door and lets DB bound through before following him out onto the sunlit roof, and the little corner of paradise he and Echo have been tending

"You were standing close together. It was a target of opportunity," Jedao says, at least a little bit true, but mostly tongue in cheek. Fives had caught his attention, and then - didn't let it go. And things happened so quickly, as war always does.

"Dogma can take as much time as he needs," Jedao murmurs, clearly enunciated, once the door is open. "I'm hoping to hang around for a little while."

He slides into foxform at Tup's heels, because it puts him more on a level with the plants, and it's convenient for sniffing and scampering around. Unlike the weres, he has a degree of flexibility with what happens to at least some of his clothes.

It's a typical old roof, flat and gravelly with a bit of a tarry scent, but it's a good sized building and one entire corner is taken over with planters all carefully constructed from scrap, and pots scrounged from curbs and dumpsters that have seen better days. But they've all been meticulously cleaned, and repaired where needed, and then filled with a riot of plants: vegetables and fruits and a scattering of flowers to brighten it all.

Echo's crouching down already as the door opens, arms spread for DB to run into them, wriggling and whining and licking his face. No one's quite sure if DB knows Echo's his father, but they've all made sure to encourage the unique bond between the two for Echo's sake. The only sign of Dogma at first is a pair of golden eyes looking through the greenery from behind a bed of tomatoes, but when the General slips into his fox form he pokes his head, and then the rest of him, cautiously around the edge, his head down and his tail wagging tentatively.

Tup laughs and follows after DB and the General, waving to his older brother. "Cody made Fives stay downstairs for a talking to," he tells Echo as he pauses to check on plants before passing by. "Dinner will probably be on the table in ten or fifteen minutes."

Jedao scurries around with a bubbling excitement that he kept mostly tamped down as a human, sticking his nose into a dozen different pots, dashing out to the windward corner to peer over the street feel the air ruffle his fur, then scampering back to lick Dogma's nose, his own tail swishing double-time.

Echo watches in amusement as the General, completely lacking in any martial dignity, skitters and scampers through the garden and Dogma, clearly nervous and bemused, creeps closer and closer as he watches. DB, on the other hand, is absolutely overjoyed at this new companion and he follows along, tail wagging happily as he checks each pot the General checks.

Echo and Tup settle themselves on a bench near the door to watch quietly as Dogma creeps out... and DB takes the opportunity of the General finally pausing to lick his uncle's nose to shove his own nose where it is not, politely, meant to go, sniffing industriously at the General's ass and crotch.

His tail whisks DB smartly in the face, less any attempt to push him off and more a crisp "I see you there." It's summer, so his testes are mostly hidden, but the tinge of ozone in his musky fox scent suddenly intensifies. He licks Dogma's muzzle one more time, more deliberately, in refusal to be rushed, before turning on a dime and bouncing upright, balanced on his back legs, his forelegs landing on Dronebait's shoulders. And suddenly, despite their relative weights which should have made it impossible, the wolfdog is the one knocked over, on his side on the ground. Jedao stands on him with his forelegs again, making a throaty rattling noise like a ratchet. He leans in with his triangular jaws open wide, around DB's ear, pressed sideways against his throat, closing gently around his muzzle.

He never really bites down: it's all surprise and no pain for the overeager pup, over in a handful of seconds, but the vulpine gesture of dominance translates neatly. Then Jedao licks his muzzle too, and hops over him to let him up. He circles around in a careless mince, and gets a quick sniff of Dronebait's ass before the bigger canine manages to get back to his feet. Jedao makes a cackling, yipping sound of playful amusement, and whacks Dronebait's back legs with the wedge of his head to nudge him up. He's perfectly friendly, but puppies will know their place, even mostly-grown ones with a hundred pounds on him.

Then Jedao goes back to paying attention to Dogma, nuzzling at his neck, tail wagging steadily again.

Echo's on his feet the second the General knocks DB back, eyes flashing gold and a growl starting to rumble in his chest, but Tup wraps a hand around his wrist and whines softly, under his breath. It's enough to break Echo out of the knee-jerk protective response, to see DB tucking tail and whining like the overgrown pup being chastised that he is, and he drops back onto the bench and leans in to rub his cheek against Tup's in thanks and apology.

Dogma, for his part, had sunk down to his belly the moment the General approached, all cowed submission and eager apology. The lick surprised him enough that he just watched DB's chastisement, but once it's done with he gives his nephew a quick nip to one ear to reinforce it. He clearly doesn't know what to make of the General's renewed attention, and he sinks down to his belly again, whining quietly and trying to lick submissively at the General's muzzle in response, but his tail actually relaxes a little, and makes a halfhearted start at wagging at the clear affection and reassurance in it.

Jedao yips happily to find Dogma now entirely in range of how short he is, and curls up half against his flank, half draped on top of his shoulders. Ten or fifteen minutes sounds like ages right now, and he intends to spend some of it cuddling in the sunlight. Dronebait, chastened but hardly discouraged, plays a game of Bother with him, wriggling forward curiously from different angles and then darting away from the lazy swipe of a paw, while Dogma looks long-suffering.

After a few minutes, once Dogma is mostly relaxed underneath him, Jedao slides back into manform, legs tucked under him now, still pressed against the bulk of the werewolf's side, petting Dogma gently. The fox's pleased high trills slide into baritone words without so much as a missed breath.

"You're a good boy, that's right. I'm very glad to see you, here and healthy. And you're a good boy too, of course you are," he adds when Dronebait launches half his weight into Jedao's lap, sensing opportunity. Jedao scritches his ears with his other hand, then glances abruptly up to Tup and Echo, watching the scene unfolding with amusement mixed with other emotions. Jedao's smile turns from sweet and silly to something older, steadier, and he holds Echo's eyes, gives him a slow, respectful nod.

"You're a brave one. I know all you boys are. But he's lucky to have you."

Echo flushes at the praise, but he meets the General's gaze steadily and dips his head in turn. "He's all I have, sir... all any of us have." Which isn't true in the most literal sense, they have their lives and each other, after all, but of all the pups he and Fives and Cody and Rex were forced to sire, Dronebait's the only one they could save. The only one they even know for sure survived.

Tup presses their shoulders tightly together and squeezes his thigh, and Echo breaks the General's gaze to smile gratefully at his younger brother.

"It's, uh, it's probably dinner time, General," he adds, and as he pushes back to his feet DB scampers up from his spot on the General's lap and bounds over to him. "Are you going to join us, Dogma?" he asks, and Dogma's tail does a slow sweep of the roof as he licks the General's chin with a grumbling whine.

"Does he not usually?" Jedao asks, dropping a kiss between Dogma's ears before levering himself up. He can see it either way: the whole family boisterously slipping him bits as he slinks around the table, or Rex having firm ideas about What Constitutes Human Mealtimes.

"No, he usually does," Echo answers, padding over and reaching down to scruff Dogma's ears gently. "But he's been more anxious than usual today-" For obvious reasons he's not going to actually state. "And sometimes when he has a bad day he just likes to stay up here as much as possible." And stay out of Fives' way, and avoid the inevitable feedback loop of anger and guilt and frustration that either of them having a bad day can set off between the two of them.

"Come eat with us, Dogma," Tup adds quietly. "It's not the same without you."

"I can see why. It's a lovely place you two have made up here," Jedao says, rather than trying to coax Dogma himself, entirely sure that there's no way he could phrase a request that Dogma wouldn't hear as an order, and Jedao has imposed himself on the nervous creature enough already. He gives him one more gentle pat and then heads for the door, although he does glance back when he gets there, wordlessly hopeful.

Tup smiles at the praise, obviously pleased.

"Thank you, General. Tup does a lot of the work." Echo knows Tup won't give himself the credit he deserves, or speak up for himself at all. "He has a real way with growing things."

As they talk, and follow the General to the door, Dogma starts to pad slowly along behind them, and at the General's glance back he dips his head submissively, but his tail is doing a slow sweep and he keeps walking, to Tup's evident delight. And DB's, who leans happily into him with a friendly grumble.

"Looks like you'll get the whole family for dinner, General," Echo announces, holding the door and ushering them all through, then letting DB take his place at his side as he makes his somewhat awkward way down the stairs.

He smiles warmly at the outcome, then follows Echo and DB down the stairs without belaboring the point too much.

"And well arranged," he adds, meaning the garden still. "It has very good flow." A professional geomancer would have tweaks, no doubt, but Jedao is hardly that.

"We mostly just put things where they fit, and where we thought they looked nice, sir," Tup offers. "Well, and with the fruit and vegetables where they'd be easy to pick. We hope."

Dogma slowly catches up to the point where he's walking next to Tup, just behind the General. He likes to stay near his littermate when he can.

"You should see it in the late morning or early afternoon sometime, that's when the hummingbirds and butterflies come by," Echo adds as they reach the hallway. "They love Tup's flowers."

"Oh, yes please, hummingbirds are my favorite," he says, with the kind of brightness that would be perked ears and a wagging tail if he were canid at the moment. Although he doesn't specify favorite what, because that would feel like pinning himself down too much.

Edited 2018-06-09 08:13 (UTC)

"Aren't they amazing?" Tup asks with a sudden burst of enthusiasm, not unlike Fives' earlier excitement in telling the General about them. "I didn't think they'd fly this high, but they come by every day."

Echo looks back from the apartment door, smiling fondly at his little brother's excitement, then pushes it open into the controlled chaos of dinner time.

"They're from jungles originally. I think to them this is just a very weird but normal-height tree," Jedao says, amused.

And that bit of information is enough to absolutely captivate Tup's attention. "I didn't know that, I just... I thought they lived in the city." And it had never occurred to him to look for information beyond that. He clearly wants to ask more, or maybe just to rush off and research it himself on one of their shared laptops, but they're folded into the bustle of dinner being delivered to the table and everyone finding their seats, Rex greeting the general, his stained apron still on and Hardcase proudly declaring that he'd made the potatoes. And Fives, looking not one bit cowed by Rex's glare across the table, just about gluing himself to the general's side as he ushers him into a seat and takes the one next to him.

"Everything smells wonderful," he tells Rex honestly. It's simple and hearty, and hu shen have always been folk spirits, little peasant gods. "You've done a great job on very short notice."

He lets Fives steer him after that, and when everyone is seated, says "Thank you all for welcoming me into your home." It's the most formal thing he's said since he quit, but hospitality is old magic, older than his bones, and despite his trickster's voice it comes out warm and soft and very sincere.

He helps himself to the potatoes before he has to say anything else.

Rex doesn't let himself show too obviously how pleased he is at the General's praise, or even at his presence, but it's clear enough for anyone who knows him, and Hardcase positively beams, especially when the General goes for the potatoes first. The meal... isn't subdued by any stretch, they don't have it in them, but there is a great deal of formality and clear respect for the General and his presence. He's offered every dish first--the beef and gravy, and the large platter of roasted vegetables that the rest of them only take the bare minimum from as Rex glares quellingly at them.

Dogma, and even DB, have plates at the table, and Tup and Echo take care of filling them for them, almost entirely with meat for DB. The wolfdog is a little awkward in his seat, but well enough behaved in his way, though he leaves the table to go chew on a massive bone of some kind on a blanket in the corner as soon as he's wolfed down is portion and licked the plate clean. Dogma's much more reserved, even about eating, and delicately picks up each item from his plate individually, and though he keeps his eyes mostly cast down he seems to be paying attention to the conversation around him... which is mostly his brothers competing (unusually politely) for the opportunity to tell the General about their lives since their discharge. Jobs and hobbies and friends, the wonder and strangeness of living in a city, and poor Cutup's never-ending quest to get a date with a girl. (Cutup blushes and mutters imprecations under his breath at his brothers' teasing.)

Rex finally managed to glare Hardcase into stopping talking about NASCAR standings and turns his attention back to the General. "How long have you been out, sir?" he asks, because he knows the General had been in long before they'd been created and commissioned and he'd assumed he'd simply remain long after as well.

He has some of everything and a little extra of all the veggies, in a vague notion of setting a good example. He keeps his smiles mild, interested or secretive, instead of the goofy indulgent one that wants to be on his face, and makes sure to ask a few different follow up questions for each of them. It's so good, to see them just - living.

"Mm. A fortnight?" he answers, because he's bad at keeping track but moon cycles help. Just two weeks, and most of it spent finding his way to exactly where he is right now.

Fives perks up a little at the answer, he'd no idea the General was so recently free of the military.

"Have you settled in the city, sir?" Rex asks. "Any of us would be honored to be of service to you if you need anything at all."

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