# To Stalk Or Not To Stalk: An Outing With Max Author: Lwitch Tags: Dachshund, Dog, Gay, Human, M/M, Slowburn, Wolf Fanfiction for the Visual Novel "Shelter" it is a really good visual novel, amazing story and characters I do recommend it for everyone if you like furry VNs. do support the artist at Patreon and Twitter. [https://twitter.com/rausmutt](https://twitter.com/rausmutt) [https://www.patreon.com/raus](https://www.patreon.com/raus) He was not Stalking The Human, of course not, what need does he have that warrants him just blindly following around?. None. Clearly, he had no need or ulterior motive to pursue, he just was a bit tired, maybe a bit bored, surely there was an explana- Why was he doing it right now? you ask... Well... He... Uh... Shit... \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Or how Alon just can't seem to stop following Luke despite how much he tells himself that the human is not special at all, cuz why would he follow the human around just to watch him get to his usual antics every day if he was not special at all? Cold… sheer unrelenting cold… That was one of the things that were most present in the harsh snow lands of the north, yet as the wolf entered through the heavy steel door all he felt was warmth… an enveloping, calming sense of warmth wrapped all around him, the heavy black leather he wore was no worthy foe when against the feeling of entering Shelter after about 30 minutes in the cold, the heavy frame surrounding all the canines(+ 1) inside its steel-reinforced frame, the sense of a familiar safe haven wasn't lost to Alon… though he would have to be tortured first before ever coming close to admitting that, a very, very, VERY, painful and long torture. "Let 's go Luuuuke!" The happy yapping of the close-by dachshund drew Alon's mind away from his dark musings, he stopped on his tracks towards… he didn't where. "You promised that you would hear-test, it has no lyrics yet but I still have to get it ready for tomorrow and I'm really pumped up to show it to you! Come on! " The smaller dog couldn't contain his excitement, his feet tapping like crazy on the cold hard floor as he gave little jumps with each tap of his feet, he pulled Luke's hand trying to hurry his human companion. Shelter's human companion. Alon watched from afar as the human laughed at the long-eared dog's excitement, he said something to the burly fat dog that accompanied them, Alon couldn't really make it out, human voices weren't as loud or traveled long distances, especially when the voice was being directed away from him. Luke's heavy clothing was much heavier and glistening with a sheen of what Alon assumed to be melting snow, the bags he carried were passed over to the bigger dog(Burry, he remembered, the dog that Luke spends most of his time around), Alon assumed they were supplies for the kitchen, his face was turned towards the smaller dog, assessing his friend, giving their undivided attention towards his dark and brown colored friend(Max, the musician dog, Alon had heard much of him from the others). Alon's tail did not wag, not at all, absolutely not at remembering when Luke looked at him that way sometimes, not at how the human smiled at him when he spotted the wolf across the distance and waved at the rouge, not when those bright colored eyes looked directly at his eye that wasn't covered by the eyepatch and he totally did not wag his tail… not even a little bit… cursed appendage, he turned his face away from the human, unless more shame were to fall upon his shoulders. His resolve was unwavering, reliable, unquavering,  **resolute, ABSOLUTELY UNSWERVING-** Oh Alon noticed as he peeked with his eye that the human was gone along with his companions, the heavy set dog probably went about his usual routine of kitchen work, Alon looked around for the human, there was no way he could have gone far with his inefficient humie-legs could he?. he was with Max and the dog was pestering him about hear testing a song?. Alon already had an idea of where they had gone, the black-furred rouge became one with the shadows, ignoring the strange stares that the other denizens gave him while moving around through the steel-reinforced hallways, towards his objective, someone with Alon's particular talents always moves around unnoticed and if anyone stopped on their way to look at him weirdly, they were completely ignored. As he got deeper into Shelter the air around him became noticeably warmer, not annoyingly so, but enough to make him take notice of it, it reminded him of that one time that Luke gave him an extra pair of blankets on one of the first few nights he stayed on Shelter, he already could practically see the exact path the human was taking, he has followed the human through similar endeavors, always from the shadows, Alon guessed that they were going to what the dachshund called 'The Studio'. It was only really one of many Shelter's rooms that barely saw any use other than being empty, truly a wonder considering the current population number. But as the dachshund claimed, the walls made his music sound better, clearer sound without letting much of it out, Alon had to agree that that particular room was usually good at keeping the sound in as well as being soundproof. After a few minutes of totally not stalking among the corners and walls Alon arrived at his destination, the heavy metal steel doors that this room possessed had to be pried manually, having lost the ability to be automatically opened before even Luke set foot on Shelter, he carefully slid his clawed hand through the crack and with a swift fluent motion opened them silently, not a single sound made. Flawless as always. The dark, barely illuminated room was big enough that its two occupants took no notice of Alon entering, too engrossed in their conversation and their antics. Alon closed the metal doors just as silently as he opened them, as he looked around he spotted a ray of light nearby, the pillar of light one of few responsible for the room's poor illumination, casting a dividing pillar of light in the darkness, Alon moved towards it and he rested his tired on the wall close to it, from that spot the ray of light was between him and the pair, the funny thing about light in the dark was that it was hard to see through of it, as long as he kept the light between him and the amicable friends they wouldn't notice his presence unless they looked hard enough… They never did, Alon had seen them do this plenty of times before, the little dog insisted on Luke's ears testing his new songs before anyone else heard them, always vying for Luke's attention as all the human's friends seemed to do,  he in turn always happily obliged the dachshund. It irked Alon sometimes, how the human foolishly followed so many patterns and routines due to his companions, didn't he know that those habits were dangerous?. Someone that kept close attention could use those same patterns and routines to harm him… Alon knows it was his intention when first coming to Shelter, to harm, to sabotage, Luke had made it easy back then, his naivety was fully taken advantage of, Alon didn't know much of the human at the time so any aversion to hurting him was non-existing to Alon, thankfully Rune was with the humie almost anytime that Alon was close by, keeping him from doing anything that he would at present time now regret. Ugh, Alon shivered at the revolting thought of ever feeling grateful to Rune… disgusting. Alon's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Max's strings, the dog and human sitting on the cold hard floor, leaning into each other, back to back, eyes closed and faces pointed at the ceiling, that was how Max insisted that it had to be done, music needed to be heard and felt, eyes just got in the way of truly appreciating music, he had claimed more than once before. Alon didn't particularly like music, but he had to grant it to the musician that he was pretty good at what he did, the sweet notes that reached his ears every time he followed the pair weren't unpleasant, yet, they still were far from his preferred part of will be transpiring. Alon slid his body down the wall as he sat, sitting just like them, relaxing his body from what had been a long day, he carefully slipped one of his claws under his eyepatch as he uncovered his eye, he needed both to take in the sight, the others would never understand the true purpose of his eyepatch, eyesight must always be trained, for if an eye does not spend much time in the darkness it will be too used to the light, thus it would be useless in poor light, one's own eyes need to be versatile, ready for anything, he wouldn't admit to anyone that the occasion called for an exception. Max claimed that eyes weren't needed for music, Alon had to disagree, it was true that music primarily awed the ears, yet to him, this was a show all on its own, much better than the crowded loud ones that Max usually gives. The slow song that poured out of his instrument was only accentuated by the sight of him and Luke leaning into each other more, swaying to the slow rhythm, looking as relaxed as one can be. Alon felt the contagious emotions, his body relaxing his muscles as he was taken in by the events occurring before him, despite being some distance away from them, to Alon it was like he was right beside them, swaying alongside them, he could almost feel Luke's warm back against his own, hear Max's guitar right beside him, as the strumming of the strings grew in frequency only to come back down in a smooth flow, he could fell his ears move and twitch now and then, dedicated to the dancing of Max's fingers on the strings… Then it started, the main event, at least to him and as much as he tried to contain it sometimes, Alon smiled, pleased with the new sounds joining into the strings' choir. His favorite part. It started soft, the quiet almost timid sound of a voice through sealed lips, he could recognize Luke's baritone as he hummed, going for the simple notes, testing the rhythm as he got in sync with the melody coming out of Max's guitar, imperfect at first, clumsy even, yet gaining more confidence as the duet gained more structure, Max seemed pleased by Luke's own addition to the song, plenty of times had Max told Luke to do this exact thing together in one of his concerts, the human always refused the offer claiming to be too busy or having other plans, Alon knew Luke just didn't like crowds, the human didn't want to be among a crowd of wild rowdy dogs that could accidentally harm him because they were too excited… Well, Alon knew the human well enough to know he actually  **did ** want to be among a crowd of wild rowdy dogs... though for an entirely different reason, he just knew it would be dangerous for him and he didn't want to bother anyone by having to be constantly looked after. Humans were such weird creatures. Granted it wasn't like Alon knew much about humans personally, just that his line of work(ex-line of work?) Had he kept tabs on plenty of subjects, including humans. In all his years doing what he does best, he never once met a human like Luke, as Alons's eyes rested on Lukes's gleeful face as the human now muttered indiscernible syllables still in rhythm with Max he wondered, wasn't he always looking after Luke anyway?. The question never came to his mind before, he wouldn't call what he did on a daily basis 'looking after Luke', he wasn't entirely sure why he even followed Luke to almost every place, not unlike how a puppy would chase its mother around he had convinced himself that he had done it to find out what made the humie so special, what did Luke have that allowed him to be like no other in the eyes of every denizen of Shelter(except Teak, but Teak was an asshole anyway and not worth anyone's effort according to Alon). All Alon had found was that Luke was not special. No extraordinary physical capability, just average stamina, strength, endurance and so on. Luke wasn't even the smartest guy around(Alon was sure that one weird, pompous border collie was the smartest). Hell, even his racial ability was lacking and barely developed as it should be, Alon had the misfortune of facing humans that could exploit their Manavision in combat and it wasn't a pleasant experience(he still had some scars from his previous encounter). Lastly, not even his social skills were remarkable, Luke often kept to himself and his little shell of close friends, too shy to interact with other individuals or feeling too intrusive when interacting with groups, at the end of the day the only human in Shelter should stand out like a sore thumb, yet everyone went about their day and barely realized that Luke was right beside them, in a way this was their own way of accepting Luke, taking for granted his presence as if he has always been there. He has… in a way or another. As Max joined into Luke's nonsensical rhythmic muttering Alon thought that he should have been the same, ignoring Luke's existence, yet as he watched Luke go about his day by day, every day, every night he didn't realize that it became a habit, whatever Luke did, wherever Luke went, Alon was always right there. Watching, spectating, looking for... what exactly?. what was Alon expecting from the human?, he wasn't special in any way, he didn't partake in the most outstanding things that could be seen up here on the north even… yet Alon couldn't stop watching, as much as he tried to steer his gaze away from the human, he always ended up just following him again, why?. A sneeze.  Max had sneezed, cutting Alon's private show short, both human and dog laughed at the strange sneeze that came from the dog, Luke doubling over himself in laughter as Max intensively sneezed about 5 consecutive times, such crude behavior wouldn't get even a chuckle out of Alon. As their laughter died down the dog thanked the human for coming and they both shared a tender moment while the dachshund hugged the human, much to Luke's embarrassment over the gesture, Max has always been a touchy-feely kind of dog as long as Alon has known of his existence, at least he was like that when around Luke, he would sometimes as Rune called it 'rub their twinkish bodies together' in a hug or cuddling up to Luke like a lost puppy, Alon didn't really consider Luke a twink but he guessed that if you compared the average-looking human to… Ninety-six percent of all the other canines on Shelter… Yeah, the human would definitely be a twink. "You should come with me tomorrow!, just to-... you know have some company." Max sounded almost sheepish, scratching the back of his head. "To-tomorrow?" Luke, clearly caught off-guard by the question stammered, Alon wondered why, Max always suggested this, yet the human was always caught off-guard. "I, huh, I would love to, Max but you know. I have to help Burry and Thistle wanted me to help him with some with the human-research-anatomy-something-something as he called it". Luke frowned, confused while he remembered Thistle's words. That damn pervert old fart. "Aww, come on Luke!, you're always so busy, can you at least think about it?" The little dog hung onto Luke's arm as he gave him the good ol' puppy dog eyes, Alon would be caught dead before doing that, why did people think that wolves did that too? wolves were fearsome capable creatures and they did not do puppy eyes o bleps or tip taps or anything like that, not even if Luke claimed they actually did. "I'll think about it Max, no promises though" Luke would always promise yet he wouldn't go in the end, Alon could tell that Luke's words would always be enough to convince Max, the dog whooped and the both of them stood up and left, as they left never once did they notice Alon, the black wolf reached inside his pocket as he pulled out a cigar, he watched the flame of his lighter dance for a while, remembering the warmth that seemed to radiate out of Shelter's resident human. While it was true that Shelter was associated with warmth, it wasn't the same kind of warmth that poured out of Luke, the human wasn't special, the human wasn't remarkable, then why did his warmth feel different than that of Shelter?.  Why was Alon wasting his time following  the human around?. Why did the wolf stay in Shelter these past few years just because the human suggested it?. Alon inhaled tobacco, letting the ashen smoke fill his lungs and calm his mind, he covered his left eye with the eyepatch as the smoke eventually found its way out of his body while he let the strings of smoke just pour out between his fangs he asked himself again. Why had he come here in the first place?, why did he know that he was going to be doing it again in the future?. What was Luke doing to him?. Source: https://sofurry.com/s/k1VlWQGm Part of the series To Stalk Or Not To Stalk Next: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1788874-to-stalk-or-not-to-stalk-he-protec-he-attac-but-he-also-has-your-back.md