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He hated it.
His hackles raised just thinking about it.
He didn’t want to admit she could have that kind of power over him. To be able to tame him so easily. He shouldn’t be so addicted to her scent. The sound of her laughter. The way her lips curled up when she sassed him back.
He shouldn’t …
But every morning he saw her told him a different story.
Theo was in the middle of happily stuffing a mouthful of warm pancakes into his mouth when it hit him. Tail slowing from it’s wagging, he subtly raised his head and angled towards the door. The delicate clicking of her steps in the hallway above the clink of several utensils against dishes. The smell of her, sweeter than the syrup dripping onto his tongue from the wad of food unknowingly frozen before his open mouth. A peek from the corner of his eye showed her breezing in with Arthur on her heels. Ears high, tail wagging, there was a teasing smile on his face as he buried his hands deep in his pockets. Theo felt his own ears drop from their perked up position to flat against his head as he read Arthur’s body language. It was clear that Arthur was losing a battle with self control.
He didn’t like that.
“Theo?”
Vincent’s soft voice cut through a low sound beginning to fill the air and when Theo turned his full attention to his brother, he realized it was him . Growling .
“Are you ok?” Vincent asked with his own fork paused in midair. Floppy ears were twitched upwards, and his eyes were soft with concern for his little brother. “Do you need more syrup?”
Theo’s jaw worked for a moment, unable to articulate anything beyond wanting to tell Arthur to back off. For reasons he refused to admit out loud. Concerning-
“Good morning Vincent!” Mc chirped, breaking his concentration. “Good morning, Theo.”
She sat across from them at Napoleon’s invitation, thanking him graciously for the plate of pancakes he handed her. Arthur hovered behind her seat, tail drooping as he clearly pouted from being thoroughly ignored.
“If you’re going to whine like that, at least do it over there,” Isaac snipped without looking up from his plate. His face didn’t match his words though, slowly turning pinker ever since she sat between him and Napoleon.
“Whine? Who’s whining?” Arthur recovered all too quickly, a cheeky grin spreading across his face as he leaned on the back of Mc’s chair. “Maybe you’re just hearing…”
Theo looked up in time to catch Arthur’s meaningful glance, a grin shifting into a smirk when they made eye contact. The noise started up again.
“...Things?” Arthur finished with a chuckle, turning on his heel to probably track down the smell of coffee drifting in to its source.
Grumbling, Theo focused back on his pancakes. His fork was just about to touch his lips when he sensed eyes on him again. She jumped when his eyes snapped up to catch her curious staring, another scowl darkening his expression even as the sweet flavor of the syrup burst on his tongue. Mc hastily focused on her own food, taking great care to cut it up in neat rows. He thought he saw a flash of green flick between the two of them. But they were focused on pancakes next he checked.
Arthur waltzed back into the room moments later, coffee in one hand and newspaper tucked under the other arm. He dropped into the empty seat at Theo’s right a little too happily for the Dutchman’s tastes. But he only rustled the paper a bit as he got settled, then sipped his coffee.
Breakfast was quiet again for another few bites, much to Theo’s relief.
He even began to point out different things in the paper to Arthur as he read, filling him in on events left out between the lines of the newspaper. But he couldn’t shake the twitch in his throat he got every time deep blue eyes took a peek over headlines and photos.
Despite the morning meal passing without further incident, Theo still found himself on edge as he walked through the foyer. Arthur’s over attentiveness and attempt to follow her alone into the kitchen was a thorn in his side. So was the way she rolled her eyes, even as her mouth trembled with the obvious strain of not laughing at the Englishman's antics. Too obvious. He growled to himself as he stopped to check he had everything in his case. He didn’t like it .
“Theo?”
He’ll swear later that he didn’t swing around like some trained pup. That his ears didn’t rear high at the sound of her voice. That his tail never swiped in a clear wag of joy just at the sight of her. It never happened. Never.
“Are you ok, Theo?” She drew closer to him, expression carefully schooled to something neutral, though he didn’t miss the glint of amusement in her eyes. “You seem a little on edge.”
“I’m fine,” he bit out, reaching to snap the case closed.
“Ah…”
And then. Warmth.
Her hand pressed against the top of his head, tenderly caressing him right between his ears. Shock washed through him hard enough to leave him speechless. His eyes went wide, locked on their feet as he tried and failed and tried again to process that she was petting him ?? Something rattled his body, a thumping noise growing loud in his ears as her fingernails caught just behind one ear perfectly while she scratched him. It took all his self control to keep just the ball of his foot on the ground, heel bouncing against the floor in a painful effort to shake uncontrollably.
“Thank you Theo,” she murmured with more affection than should be legal to his ears, “for chasing Arthur off earlier.”
Her hand slipped away, drawing an embarrassingly bestial whine of disappointment out of him. Her soft chuckle only seemed to lock the gears in his mind even further as his leg slowly jittered to a stop. He sputtered when she turned away, words only able to form after she turned a corner and was gone.
His tag wasn’t wagging.
His heart wasn’t fluttering.
He was still a beast through and through.
Tamed by no man...