Work Text:
Wamuu winced slightly as every step he took seemed to echo around the tunnel, breaking the general silence in such an obvious way that he felt like he was going to be caught out any second. It was a small thing, merely a way the entrance hallways had been designed, to carry noise easily so that the residents of the underground complex could get an early warning should any of the humans that lived an appropriate distance away somehow manage to stumble upon their home.
The small bundle the child was holding whimpered slightly, a small, quiet noise, but noise that carried nonetheless, and he drew the cloth closer to his chest. He felt like a criminal creeping through somewhere he should certainly not be, awful and anxiety-inducing.
He poked his head around the corner to see if there was anyone nearby, horn almost tapping against the hard stone wall but missing by a hair's breadth. No-one around, he thought, as he let out an inaudible sigh of relief.
A throat clearing behind him broke the still silence and almost made him jump out of his skin, literally. He spun around on his heel to see the one person he wished not to get caught by most.
"L-lord Kars!" The child stammered, shifting the bundle behind his back as fast as he possibly could in a futile attempt to hide it. The thing he was carrying let out a high-pitched yelp as he jerked it behind himself, and he cringed.
Kars stood there silently, brow raised as he looked upon his ward and the way he was acting. "What are you holding, Wammu?" He asked, despite the fact that he could tell immediately. His senses weren't just for show, you realise.
"U-um, I uhhhh-" 'Oh no,' Wamuu thought, filled with a sense of absolute mortification, 'I messed up, I messed up so bad.'
"Why exactly," Kars spoke, as he cut into Wamuu's terrified inner monologue "Did you think it was a wise idea to bring an untrained animal in here?"
Wammu brought the wrapped cloth back out from behind his back, clutching it gently towards his chest. "I-It was hurt." He murmured, face flushed in embarrassment and shame, "I just wanted to help it."
"Show it here, Wamuu."
Hesitant, the child handed over the injured animal to his master. Kars took in the thing, a mutt of some sort with an injured hind leg. It looked to only be a few weeks old, remaining silent partly due to its own injury and partly because the animal could sense that he was dangerous. He looked back at Wamuu, the boy standing there with his fists clenched at his sides, head bowed, not wanting to see what he clearly thought Kars would do with the small animal.
'Hmm,' Kars thought, 'Just maybe...'
"Wamuu," he spoke again, tone heavy with a sense of finality that he did not possess previously.
The boy looked up to meet his eyes. "Yes, Lord Kars?"
"You may keep the animal." Kars said, blatantly ignoring the look of absolute shock that crossed Wamuu's face. "But the second it becomes too much of a liability, you get rid of it. Understood?" He told the boy as he handed the injured dog back to him.
Wamuu looked starstruck. A slow grin crept up across his features, eyes seeming to practically sparkle with joy.
"YesLordKars--ThankYouLordKars!" Tumbled out of his mouth, as he turned and sprinted back to his shared chambers with his brother, clutching the puppy to his chest as he did so.
Kars shook his head in exasperation. "Children..." he sighed.
.....
..........
.....
"Yuutu, heel!"
Esidisi approached where Kars was sitting from behind, arms wrapping around his shoulders as he looked over to where the two children were playing with Wamuu's pet, Yuutu, as he had taken to calling it over the past few years.
"So," he said glibly, "They seem to be having fun."
Kars leant back onto him and sighed. "Seems that way, doesn't it?"
"Well," Esidisi amended, looking at the red-haired child standing with Wammu, who had a look of hesitance on his face as he gazed at the quite-large dog. "Ball's still out on Santana, but Wammu is certainly happy."
"Hmm." Kars cocked his head. "I plan to take Santana with me on my trip."
"Oh? So it'll just be me and Wamuu for the next few years? Not afraid of me being a bad influence?"
"I trust you to be at least somewhat mature on your own, Esidisi." Kars teased back, looking him in the eyes. He glanced back to where the boys were playing. "They've had that dog for quite a while now. Odd enough that Wammu found it this far south, those things are usually found around snow."
"Yes? Kars, where are you leading with this?"
"I've been thinking about..." Kars lowered his voice so that neither of the children would be able to hear him, sharp as their senses were. "Making a mask for it. You know, to both practice on animals other than humans and as a gift for the kids."
Esidisi raised a brow. "Sounds like a good idea. Could be useful in combat if he trains it well enough. Why are you asking me?"
Kars rolled his eyes. "Because I haven't done anything of the sort on such an animal? Because I don't really know how the brain of the creature works and if I decide to go through with it, I only have a few months to make one before I'm due to leave with Santana? Because Wamuu would certainly cry and then lie about doing so if anything happened to his precious pet?" He ranted, drawing himself up more and more as he stated every possible flaw the plan had.
Esidisi gave Kars a quick peck on the cheek, and the tension in his shoulders that had built up during Kars's mini-rant dissipated like mist. "You give yourself too little credit," he said as Kars let out a stressed sigh "You're the smartest guy I've ever known, you could totally do such a thing if you wanted to."
Kars hummed. "Maybe. But the question is, should I?"
"Well, what do you think?" Esidisi asked as he raised his wrist to loosely point at the boys. Santana had a quiet smile on his face, and Wamuu was laughing brightly as Yuutu ran circles around the two boys, her black fur spotted with blobs of white, making the sprinting animal look like shooting stars on a black backdrop to a lesser eye.
Kars was silent. "Fine," he finally said, "I'll make the mask."
Esidisi smiled and hugged his husband slightly tighter.
.....
..........
.....
"Alright," Kars deadpanned as he looked upon the sheepish Wammu and boisterously laughing Esidisi, as well as the four dozen or so large vampire dogs surrounding them. "This has gone on a bit too far."
"Welcome back?" Esidisi laughed, and Kars let out a heavy sigh.
"No. Not putting up with your shit right now. I've spent a good ten years away from here and come back to this chaos. Absolutely not." Ranted Kars, as he looked over to where Santana was standing, the boy surrounded by dogs half as large as him and looking like a deer in the headlights.
"I- I'm sorry, Lord Kars, it's just that Yuutu had a litter, and before I could find somewhere to put them I had named them and then they had pups and- it all got out of hand."
Kars felt so fucking tired. "Esidisi," he ground out, "I'm blaming you for this."
"ME!?" His husband squawked out, similar to the birds that he enjoyed training. "What did I do!?" He asked as he dramatically put a hand to his forehead. God he loved him but there was just so much bullshit to put up with at times.
"You're a bad influence and a menace to society," Kars said sweetly, "now, Wamuu, we are not keeping these dogs in the caves, nor the temple. There simply isn't enough room. If you want to keep them you're going to have to figure out somewhere else to put them. Or build somewhere, if it's more to your liking." He paused, briefly glancing back over towards Santana yet again, who looked incredibly flighty as he was slowly approached on all sides by at least twenty of the beasts. "They didn't get into my workshop, did they?" He asked as he switched his attention back to Wamuu.
Wamuu bowed his head, less flustered than he was prior after seeing the familiar banter that both of his d̶a̶d̶s̶ superiors engaged in. "No, Lord Kars." He spoke "I kept them out of the workshop the entire time."
"Good," Kars absently responded, eyes completely focused on how Santana was being dragged down by the animals, who were dogpiling on top of him. 'Help,' he mouthed, and Kars simply watched passively as he was caught under the mass of animals, single arm sticking up as if reaching for freedom. "And you will relocate them?" He asked Wamuu.
"Indeed, my lord." Wammu's eyes were also set firmly upon the dog pile under which Santana had been buried. There was a mix between horrified fascination and amusement warring on his face. Yuutu was by his side, a good half as much larger as the other dogs in the room, and Kars wondered what exactly was the cause of that. Was it because she was the oldest?
"You are all the worst." Came Santana's extremely muffled voice from under hundreds of pounds of fur and muscle.
Esidisi cackled like the madman he was. "Love you too, Santy."
.....
..........
.....
Santana was in Lord Kars's workshop. He shouldn't have been, but it was just meant to be for a few minutes, to look, not touch. he'd done it before and had not gotten in trouble, and what Lord Kars can't presently react to- because the man will know that he was there, he's just that good- won't hurt him.
He's free to wander from desk to desk when Lord Kars isn't here, hovering over his shoulder and telling him to only focus on some boring section of his studies. He is free to go looking at the papers stacked and thrown all around the workshop, with scrawled diagrams and notes that were written so hurriedly that they're barely legible. He himself is quite smart, but Lord Kars's brain seems to operate on an entirely different wavelength altogether, with all the talk about acupuncture and neuroscience and unlocking the full potential of the brain almost flying over his head before he slowly starts to understand.
His fingers brush the diagrams and schematics for the latest mask that Lord Kars has been working on for the past fifty or so years, glancing at the half-chiseled block of stone on the edge of the table that was supposed to be a step further in all of their evolution. It was a necessity, he knew, but was there really not any more efficient ways? They- and by that he meant Lord Kars- hadn't even managed to develop a mask that could fully pierce their brains just yet. Santana sighed, turning away from the -now that he noticed- precariously balanced slab of rock, and started to move towards the older prototypes, made both for practice in carving and to turn lower lifeforms into slightly stronger lower lifeforms in order for the members of their small family to have a slightly better meal.
As he turned, his hip bumped against the side of a table, and it was with his extremely keen sense of hearing and a spiking sense of horror that he heard the stone block behind him tipping over.
He turned around in a dive, saving the latest stone mask, but knocking violently against another table leg as several other, older versions of the mask fell to the ground and shattered. "Fuck," he breathed, as terror shot up his spine. Lord Kars and Lord Esidisi always took anything to do with the masks extremely seriously, and here he was, having broken three.
'At least I managed to save the newest one?' A small, hysterical part of himself thought, as he moved to get up onto his feet, clutching at the half finished mask.
And then the door opened.
Santana froze. 'I'm going to die.' He thought lightly, 'Lord Kars is going to come in here, see me surrounded by broken masks, holding his latest creation, and he is going to kill me.'
His eyes shifted towards the door frame and towards the imposing figure who stood there. 'Not like I'd be too much of a loss, anyway. Wamuu is better at everything as opposed to me. Oh god-' he thought as he saw who was actually standing at the door, rather than Lord Kars. 'Nevermind the whole swift death thing. Fuck.'
Lord Esidisi stood imposingly at the only escape route the room had, looking down on Santana with an impassive gaze on his face. He was unmoving as he watched him, apathetic to Santana's increasing anxieties as he froze halfway picking himself up from the floor.
"L-lord Esidisi," Santana stuttered out "I-i-" words failed him as Esidisi continued to gaze upon him with such a menacing look, one he had never seen directed towards him before.
Esidisi remained silent. And then slammed his head into his palms and started bawling. What?
As Santana watched Esidisi sob with tears absolutely flooding out of his eyes about how "his precious baby was a bad egg, buhuhu" he felt like he had ascended to reach a new level of existence, one that consisted solely of fear, anxiety, and absolute confusion. It just got so, so much worse when Esidisi suddenly cut off his crying, going right back to menacingly silent.
"Santana," he spoke, voice flat. "Come with me. Now."
Santana could only nod as he placed the prototype mask back onto the desk- much farther away from the edge rather than as it had been previously, and then turned and followed after Lord Esidisi, who was already striding down the hallway. He was so stressed out that he had passed through stress and circled back to calm. He only hoped that Lord Esidisi didn't do any more of... whatever that was, because Santana did not want to know what humans felt like when they had fucking heart attacks.
.....
..........
.....
Santana sat relaxed on his bed, reading from a book he had gotten from one of the human caravans that strayed too close to their home, as his brother fussed and fretted about the wellbeing of his dogs, torn between happiness about actually travelling to see the world, and sadness that he would be leaving Santana (and his small army of canine companions) behind.
"-and don't cause any trouble for Santana while I'm gone, especially you, Judas" he scolded as he looked over to a mainly-white dog that was trying its damndest to look innocent. The others, scarily intelligent beings that they were, simply nodded.
Wamuu glanced back towards where his brother was lounging on his bed that he rarely used, taking in Santana's more-subdued-than-usual disposition. "Are you alright with everything, Santana?" He queried. "I thought you would be most excited of all to go to the continents across the sea." It's a surprise that you're staying here, he didn't say.
Santana remained still, and then with a start, shut his book with a clear snap, eyes closed. "No, Wamuu, I'm fine. I would rather not stray too far, and besides, someone has to guard the masks."
Wammu nodded reluctantly, feeling that there was something Santana wasn't talking about, but brushing past it anyways. "Hey, Santana?"
"Yes?"
"You can take care of my dogs while we're gone, yes?"
Santana opened his eyes to give his brother an incredulous look. "Wamuu, your dogs loathe me."
"No they don't!"
"I literally get dogpiled whenever I'm left in the room with more than three, I think they dislike me."
Wamuu huffed, unwilling to admit he was wrong. "That's... just a sign of affection."
"Of course, I believe you completely. Now, shouldn't you be packing? I thought you wanted to bring your training items with you"
Wamuu shot to his feet "I forgot about those!" He yelled as he rushed out of the room, unintentionally causing gusts of winds as he fled.
Santana sighed as Wamuu left the room. He looked down towards the book on his lap, clenching his fists. It just wasn't fair.
"Santana." Lord Kars had said, and Santana kept his posture low and his head bowed. If he tensed any more he felt like something was going to snap. Lord Kars couldn't be serious with his punishment, could he? "Do you understand?"
"Yes, Lord Kars." He responded, and not for the first time in his life the words left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Alright then." Kars sighed. "I did not want to do this to you, but time and time again you have ignored my warnings about my workshop. You shall remain here while Wamuu, Esidisi and I travel to the continents across the sea to search for things that may improve the masks. We shall return to you when our mission is complete."
Santana's face burnt red with humiliation as he recalled that moment. Then he let out a sigh and threw himself backwards further onto his bed, eyeing the massive hounds in the room warily. They seemed to be taking Wamuu's advice however, for the moment, and mostly let him be. Yuutu, however, came over to his side, and after a moment of reluctance he allowed himself to stroke her midnight-black fur.
His family were going off to explore the world, without him, and all he could do was wonder about when he would see them again.