Chapter Text
Prompt: Headlights on a dark road
Title: Found
The country lanes were dark, the moon providing barely any light. According to readouts, the anomaly was here, somewhere.
Had Becker been travelling any faster he would have hit the creature when it appeared in the road. He stopped mere feet from it, the critter’s eyes huge, alarmed, as it sat frozen to the spot, staring up at him.
Becker radioed the others his location and got out of the car. It was only little and if he caught it now he wouldn’t have to chase it later, he reasoned, offering it a biscuit from his stash in the glovebox.
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Prompt: Rain
Becker crouched, offering a digestive to the creature currently standing in the road in front of his car. It was some kind of wolf, only a cub, but even he realised it didn’t belong in this era.
The rain was getting heavier, soaking them both. The cub’s wet fur made it look rather pitiful, but still wary as it eyed the biscuit, daring to take it.
~.~
Thirty minutes and numerous biscuits later, the cub sat in the vehicle’s footwell, by the heater. Becker sniffed, grimacing at the aroma of wet dog.
“You smell,” he told it as it settled in.
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Prompt: The telephone
Title: Stranded.
The wolf cub’s ears flattened and it growled as Becker’s phone rang. He scrambled to silence it, seeing how the shrill sound upset the little cub.
“See? It’s just a phone,” he told it, but the cub continued to growl softly. Had it been fully grown it would have been menacing but on the cub it just looked cute, Becker thought.
He answered the call, listening in dismay as Connor updated him, before turning back to the cub. He offered a hand to it, waiting until it sniffed him cautiously. The anomaly was gone; the poor thing was stranded here.
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Prompt: Reunion
Becker parked the car and walked toward the others. They were looking at something on the ground. Animal footprints in the mud.
“The anomaly was here,” Connor told him. “And something definitely came through.”
Leading them back to the vehicle, Becker opened the door. “Something did,” he said, showing them the cub.
Still sitting in the footwell, the cub shied away from Connor and Abby when they looked in. It whined softly until Becker moved closer and reached in to pet it.
“It seems to like you,” Abby observed, backing off. “Maybe you should drive it back to the ARC.”
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Prompt: (Picture prompt - christmas tree and decorations)
Title: Houseguest
Becker opened the gate on the cage and watched the wolf cub edge out cautiously. He’d had to make all kinds of assurances to Lester before he was allowed to bring it home, but the poor thing had whined and howled when he put it into the menagerie.
The cub prowled around the room, exploring its new surroundings carefully. It sneezed when it sniffed at the Christmas tree, the tinsel tickling its nose, before eventually curling up in front of the fire.
Becker smiled, watching it getting comfortable; he couldn’t leave it alone in the ARC at Christmas, could he?
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Prompt: Christmas Carol
Becker was woken abruptly from his snooze on the sofa. Still half asleep, it took him a moment to realise where the sound was coming from.
Sitting in front of the TV he’d left on when he fell asleep, the wolf cub was watching, fascinated. On screen, a choir was singing Christmas carols around a tree, and the cub howled along with them.
Taking the remote, Becker hit mute but the cub turned to him with such a pitiful expression that he sighed, turning the volume back up. The cub howled again: His neighbours were not going to be happy.
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Prompt: Grateful
Becker was getting worried now. Moss, the wolf cub he’d brought home to care for, had escaped almost four hours ago. The whole team, even Lester, had been searching for him but, so far, nothing. Becker knew that Moss was a wild animal, that he could probably look after himself, but he was just a cub…
He and Matt were making a second sweep of the park when his phone rang.
“We’ve got him.”
“Thank you! Where are you?”
As he went to meet Connor, Becker decided he owed them all a drink for spending their Saturday searching for Moss.
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Prompt: Leftovers
Matt missed Becker. Usually, they ate together in the canteen each day, catching up or just enjoying each other’s company, but recently Becker had been spending his lunch hour in his office. Well, Matt had decided, if Becker wouldn’t come to him…
Sitting in Becker’s office, eating his lunch, Matt smiled as he watched Becker. Moss, the wolf cub, was curled up under the desk, occasionally whimpering pathetically in the hope that Becker would sneak him another piece of sandwich.
“You shouldn’t feed him that.”
Becker glanced at Moss. “But he’s hungry.”
“No, he just knows that you’re a pushover.”
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Prompt: Role Model
Lester watched Becker walk through the ARC with the wolf cub he’d adopted. The cub trotted alongside him, sitting and waiting patiently when Becker paused to talk to Jess. Lester frowned. Becker had barely glanced at the cub and yet he’d obeyed, unlike Connor’s Diictodons. They’d eaten another of his shoes last night while ignoring his frustrated commands to put it down.
Maybe Becker would let the cub come and play with them; that good behaviour might rub off on them. Or better yet, maybe he’d give them a bit of obedience training…
“Becker? I have a favour to ask…”
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Prompt: How to win friends and influence people
Moss stood at the edge of the room, his hackles raised as Sid and Nancy barrelled toward him. Becker’s low warning stopped the cub growling but they obviously got the message, skidding to a halt, the three creatures eyeing each other warily.
“This was a bad idea,” Lester said eventually.
Becker smiled. “Maybe not. Look.”
Nancy had left Sid and Moss glaring at one another and was dragging one of her stuffed toys toward them. She dropped it in front of Moss and backed away.
After a few moments, Moss’s tail began to wag.
Lester heaved a sigh of relief.
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Prompt: Bruises
Matt watched Lester limp into his office and sit down.
“What happened to him?”
“A wolf and two over-enthusiastic diictadons,” Becker told him. “Moss had a playdate with Sid and Nancy yesterday.”
“They didn’t get along?”
Becker shook his head. “They had a great time. Unfortunately, Lester came in, not paying attention and fell over Sid.”
Matt sniggered.
“It wasn’t funny! It took me ten minutes to coax Sid, Nancy and Moss from under the table after Lester had finished yelling at them.”
“So, no more playdates?”
Becker sighed. “No, it’s just at my house next time.”
Matt looked sympathetic.
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Prompt: (picture prompt- anomaly)
Title: Homeward bound
“Becker, let him go. It’s where he belongs.”
Becker glared at Lester but reluctantly released the wolf cub’s collar.
Before them, the anomaly which would take Moss home glittered. Moss looked wary, possibly remembering the last time he’d been near an anomaly, but still he edged forward. Becker’s heart sank as he watched Moss wander through, vanishing completely.
He’d gone, and now the anomaly was starting to flicker.
Seconds before the anomaly closed, a grey blur raced back through and hurled himself at Becker.
“Good boy, Moss,” Becker told him, picking him up and hugging him, ignoring the others’ amusement.
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Prompt: Gold
“Always believin’… you are gold! Gold!...”
Matt pinched himself, hoping that when he woke up he wouldn’t be stuck in a car, listening to Spandau Ballet. No luck. He and Becker were taking Moss to the seaside for the day and if this was anyone else but Becker… He’d do almost anything for Becker but this was pushing it.
He reached over and turned the stereo off. Hearing a whimper from the back seat, Matt glanced at Moss.
“Don’t give me that look; it’s staying off. I’m sick of pop music.”
In the driver’s seat, Becker looked amused. “You realise that you’re arguing with a wolf…”
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Prompt: Handheld anomaly detector
Matt looked out of the window; the sea was grey, the sky still murky, but it didn’t matter. They needed a break and what better than giving an over-excitable cub his first glimpse of the beach? Even better, he got a whole day with Becker.
Going to open the back door to let Moss out, he groaned. How the hell did Moss get hold of that?
“What’s up?” Becker asked.
Matt indicated to the guilty looking cub. “Let’s hope there isn’t an anomaly shout anywhere around here,” he said, eyeing the mangled, chewed remains of Becker’s handheld anomaly detector.
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Prompt: Photographic evidence
“So how are we going to explain this?” Becker asked as he collected the remains of his anomaly detector into a bag. “Lester will make me get rid of Moss if I tell him Moss ate it. I could tell him I lost it, I suppose.”
Matt shrugged. “You could, but what about this?”
Holding out his phone, he showed Becker the photograph of Moss and the debris.
“You wouldn’t.”
“I might.”
“What do you want?”
Matt smiled. “Dinner.”
Becker frowned. “That’s all?”
“And maybe breakfast tomorrow.”
Becker stared. “Do you mean…?”
Matt nodded. “If you want me to. Well?”
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Prompt: Make do and mend
Title: Yes
“Seriously? You’re blackmailing me into going out with you?” Becker asked in disbelief.
“No!” Matt’s grin faded. “Sorry. You don’t have to, if you don’t want.”
Becker rolled his eyes. “Idiot. I… Moss, no!”
He managed to hook a finger into Moss’s collar just as the wolf finished chewing through his lead.
“He needs a new one,” Matt observed, watching Becker knot the pieces together.
“This will be fine.”
As they started walking, Moss saw Matt take Becker’s hand and growled, pushing between them. That was his human.
Becker glanced at him. “Stop that.”
Matt laughed. “I think he’s jealous.”
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Prompt: Sick as a dog
Moss snatched the piece of hotdog from Matt’s fingers
“I wouldn’t feed him any more, if I were you.”
“I just want him to like me,” Matt admitted. “I’d like to be able to touch you without him growling at me.”
That would be nice, Becker thought.
“Anyway, it’s just a few treats,” Matt said, scratching Moss behind the ears.
~.~
Matt glared at Becker as he cleaned the wolf puke off his shoe.
“Don’t say it.”
Becker bit back his laughter. “On the bright side, I think he likes you. He threw up on your shoes, not mine.”
“Piss off.”
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Prompt: Shakespeare
Title: Hints
Matt and Becker leaned on the railing, watching Moss play on the beach. He was darting around, chasing a flock of seagulls each time they landed.
“You never said if you’d have dinner with me,” Matt said.
Becker smiled. “You never actually asked me; blackmail doesn’t count. You never even said you were interested before today…”
“I hinted! What was I meant to do? Spout poetry at you?” Matt asked. “’Shall I compare thee to a summers’ day, thou art more temperate and-‘”
“No more poetry. I find this works much better,” Becker said, pulling Matt closer and kissing him.
---tbc