ToLaD: Chapter 8: Meeting Again
Warning: This chapter contains references to homosexuality and death. If you don't like it, please read with caution or not at all.
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Light was walking through the streets towards Skye's shop. Since she was out on a contract, that left him to work at the shop. The other anthros that passed him only gave him a glance as he passed. The reason he was out was because he had to run a few....... errands first.
When he made it back, he unlocked the shop's door and entered, flicking on the lights when he passed the light switches, but he kept the closed sign out front. Since he had been given the list of things to do before properly opening the shop.
Things like restocking the shelves and sweeping the floors clean. Simple stuff.
Throughout the few hours that passed, few anthros came, looking through the aisles and buying an item that interested them. Throughout that time, his shoulder burnt on and off from the wound he took a few nights ago.
'Why did that exosuit fail? Not trusting Fahyim again to give me missions.' He thought once over the hours, when the wound from a bullet begun to burn.
Suddenly, the one anthro he was looking for came in through the door. Skye looked tired, so Light allowed her to go up into the apartment for her much needed rest. Suna knows she needs it.
The day dragged on, customers came and went, buying stuff as they came. When Skye came back from her rest, she allowed Light to leave. Checking the time, he noticed that it was almost lunch. So, he wandered through the outer zones of the city, the small apartment blocks soon giving way to small houses once more. He was thinking deeply, but was so in thought that he missed where he was supposed to turn and wasn't looking at whatever was in front of him.
He bumped into something and fell back, yelping since he landed on his tail. He heard a dull metal clang from beside him. Light looked down, seeing the brass knuckle he had in his pocket half hanging out. He quickly shoved it back into his pocket and glared at what he bumped into, which was another anthro, and began to growl.
"Why don't you look where you're going?!" He yelled, growling.
The anthro he bumped into groaned and sat up. The sight of that damn black fox made Light growl louder.
"Sorry 'bout that." The fox apologised, standing up. He walked over and offered a paw to help Light up, which he reluctantly took. The albino fox was really beginning to hate that wound.
"You alrigh'?" The black fox asked, his eyes flashing in concern and paw hovering over Light's bicep.
"I'm fine." Light grumbled, knocking the other fox's paw away.
"You sure?"
"Yes."
A short break followed, so Light weaved past the black fox and continued on his own way. Or, at least, tried to.
"Where are you going?" The black fox asked.
Light began to growl. He's sick of these constant questions.
"The mall. I have to meet someone there. Important business." Light answered, barely turning.
"Good news, then. I have to get there as well. And you are going away from the mall, you know that?" The black fox responded.
Light stopped in his tracks. He looked back, seeing the street he needed to turn off situated behind the black fox. He stormed up to the black fox, growling to himself.
"Lets go, then. But don't talk to me." Light growled.
The black fox shrugged and they walked to the mall together in silence, the only sounds being the wind and their feet hitting the ground. Both looked at the other awkwardly, although only when the other wasn't looking. Light kept his paw wrapped around his brass knuckles in his hoodie pockets, just in case.
And now, he was starting to regret saying that the black fox couldn't talk to him.
"If you want to talk, you can. Just don't go overboard." Light amended, breaking the silence.
He felt the black fox's eyes fall on him in disbelief. Light smirked inwardly at the response.
"Well, then. Let's begin with the introductions." The black fox said.
"Isn't that going overboard already?"
"Nope, not at all. Telling the other person what your name is is common courtesy, provided that they ask first."
Light sighed. Damn his lack of knowledge on social norms.
"My name is Ambert. Yours?" Light answered, glaring at the other fox.
"Braedon." The black fox replied, just glancing Light's way.
They went through periods of silence and light conversation, although the periods of silence were longer than those in conversation. When they made it to the mall, they split without any other words being exchanged.
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Braedon began to look through the shelves once more, searching for something that he would like. A small contraption caught his attention, so he picked it up, curious. He spun the small lever around, seeing the contraption move as he spun it.
He hummed in satisfaction, but sucked in a breath when he saw the price. Displeased, he put it back and went back to searching for that certain something.
"Brae-Brae, darl!" A chipper voice yelled out.
Braedon stopped in his tracks and his breath hitched in his throat. He began to sweat uncontrollably. He began to breathe heavier, almost hyperventilating.
It was her.
He instantly put on a sour face when she jumped into his vision. A female lupine, same age as him. She wore a short skirt and a crop top. She stood up onto her toes, wanting to peck his cheek. Braedon leant away, but couldn't get away completely as she kept leaning forwards. To stop this, Braedon instantly turned away from her, only for her to prance around back into his vision.
"Caroline, stop this. It was over years ago." Braedon growled.
"Oh, puh-lease, Braedon. You know you still love me." The lupine said.
"No, I don't. Not after you broke my heart."
"Braedon, I said I was sorry. Leave that little shit you call your boyfriend and-"
Braedon instantly covered Caroline's mouth with his paw, shutting her up. His paw was shaking in rage, and he was breathing so hard through his teeth that he was growling.
"You're extremely lucky I cannot hit you right now. But never, EVER, demean Amato like that EVER again." Braedon threatened.
He removed his paw from the shocked lady lupine's mouth and stormed away, completely forgetting about what he was looking for. When he came around the corner of the aisle he was in, a bull security guard met him at the corner.
"Was there someone bothering you, son?" The bull asked.
"Yeah, she is righ-" Braedon was about to answer, turning to point to Caroline down the aisle, but there was no one else in there.
The bull placed a hoof on Braedon's shoulder. "You did a good job diffusing the situation yourself, kid. Put that sorry excuse of a lupine in her place." The bull congratulated.
Braedon smiled, nodding his thanks, and the bull left Braedon to his own devices. But the vulpine was too angry to think clearly, so he left the shop and wandered through the mall. Finding nothing else that remotely interested him, he left.
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Light reviewed over his target once more from the HUD on his communicator. It was his final target for the day. And it was someone familiar to him.
It was the dragon bouncer from that gods-forsaken club.
And apparently, he's had many many dealings in the corporate business world that went sour. Sour for his own good.
Time to bring down a dirty rich anthro whose money is really dirty.
He turned the communicator off, placed it within his pocket and pulled his muzzle mask up. He steeled himself and walked out. His eyes swept across the crowd, spotting the target quite easily. Hard to miss a dragon anywhere.
Keeping his head lowered, Light walked through the crowd, keeping an eye on the dragon. He clasped his paws around his brass knuckles, savouring the touch of the cold metal. He stalked his target, not quite as his ancestors once did thousands of years ago. The dragon turned down an odd spot, one which Light followed him down.
Bad move.
As soon as he turned down the odd spot, he was punched in the guts and thrown into the odd spot. Recovering, Light stood and pulled his brass knuckles out of his pockets.
The dragon was standing with his back to the outside world, where anthros walked past without any other care about what is happening here.
"You think you can take me on, punk?" The dragon asked, cracking a few vertebrae. "I had a fair share of assassins come after me before."
He charged, a fist raised in the air ready to be brought down upon the albino vulpine. Light just stood there, waiting. The dragon swung his fist, which Light ducked under and punched the dragon in the belly.
It hurt Light's own fist to punch him.
Both parties were slightly injured. The dragon was winded while Light was soothing his aching fist.
Light was lucky that an aching fist was all he got. But right now, he needed full use of his hands. So he placed the brass knuckles back into his pockets and raised his fists without them. When the dragon charged once more, Light ducked under once more, wrapped one paw around the dragon's snout and pulled his pistol out with the other.
He thanked Suna that he remembered to place the silencer on the pistol.
He placed the end of the silencer underneath the dragon's chin and pulled the trigger. The bullet shot right through the dragon's skull, killing the dragon bouncer with as little pain as he could manage. Of course it would've hurt badly, but it had the least amount of pain. Warm blood coated Light's paw and fur, coating it in crimson.
The dragon fell backwards when Light let go of the snout. He landed heavily, the air escaping from the dragon's lungs when he did. Light placed the pistol back into his coat and shoved his paws into his pockets.
"May Osyn drag you to her realm." Light mumbled before walking away from the corpse.