Chapter Text
Wolf shouldn’t be doing it. It was crazy, stupid, reckless and whatever words he felt Diane would use in this situation.
Diane.
She was the last person he needed to be thinking of with what he was going to do.
The car shuddered to a stop. He stepped out into the cold, dry air of the parking lot. Thankfully, they hadn’t put her in S.U.C.M, which might’ve been a mistake on their part, but oh well, here he was.
Why?
He wouldn’t answer that because he didn’t exactly know.
Maybe he just needed to see for himself. Maybe he just wanted to know.
He crossed the parking lot, the biting air billowing his jacket and chilling his fur as he reached the entrance and got waved in by the guard.
He’d called in beforehand. He’d set up a meeting. He’d cleared his plans for the night.
This wasn’t an accident. He didn’t just enter his car and drive, and somehow landed in the prison yard.
No, it was deliberate. He had no excuse if Diane ever found out.
God, he had no excuse for why he was doing this.
As he thought about it sudden flashes entered his mind of all the times Kitty had risen like a terrifying wave and knocked him sideways. He still felt the phantom pain of bruises long gone, and something in his face hadn’t quite healed right from her smashing fists. But by God, he wanted to see. To know.
The official story was that he was dead. All of them. But she wouldn’t believe that. He knew she wouldn’t.
Not Kitty Kat. Not ever.
The loud beep of the doors jolted him out of his thoughts, and a guard escorted him to a far secluded corner, away from the other cells, tucked away and looking forgotten. The air smelled abandoned, rats scurrying in the walls, the sharp smell of damp and mold, and framing it all, large behind the cold, ruthless bars was Kitty.
Even in captivity, she still made him hold his breath. The size of her. The way her presence filled every inch of space and left nothing for him to breathe. Her head hung low, chains attached to her wrists and secured to the wall above her bed. She was in orange, but the jumper had been pushed down to her waist, the equally orange singlet hugging every bit of tight-fitting frame. Her muscles stood out in the dark. Her chest rose and fell in quiet breathing, but it somehow seemed she was charging up, ready to lunge at him from across the bars.
Wolf swallowed, stood and waited. She knew he was there. The guard stayed for a few more seconds, then walked down the corridor, tucked himself into a corner and out of sight.
Kitty breathed evenly, head not lifting, her body not moving from the sitting/slouched position she was in.
It was impossible not to admire her. The sheer brute strength she possessed. The anger, the vengeance. It bounded inside her like loose cannons, firing and smashing together and going nowhere.
She hadn’t fought anyone. Or spoken. Wolf had inquired before his visit.
They said she kept to herself, sat in her cell and stared at the floor. The times she looked up, the guards had noted she did so with contempt and nothing else.
She didn’t mock them or frighten them. Almost like her trouble wasn’t with them, and she’s made peace with it.
She did as she was told and was far too large and menacing to be bullied into submission.
But one look at the breathtaking snow leopard, Wolf knew she was biding her time and that her query rested with him. After he’d foiled her plan and his girlfriend had knocked her out for good measure, along with two teeth. She probably had it out for Diane, too, but with him most.
Still, Kitty Kat didn’t look up.
Wolf shifted, cleared his throat, adjusted his collar. He opened his mouth and closed it. There wasn’t anything to say. Yet words hung in the space between them, hateful, vengeful words and sympathetic explanations.
Wolf ran a hand over his head. Kitty didn’t look up.
He didn’t know what to expect but it was clear from his agitation that it wasn’t this. Her silence. Her refusal to acknowledge. Even from behind bars, that act of defiance sounded louder and harsher than any shout or scream.
What was he even doing?
Wolf shook his head, dug into his pocket and dropped his gift for her on the floor inside her cell. A single speck of gold dust. He didn’t know what he meant by it, didn’t want to think too hard about it either. There was no wind to blow it to her, so it stayed on the dirty floor. He remained standing by the bars despite being warned prior not to stand too close. Somehow, he knew she wouldn’t lunge at him.
He stayed for a few more seconds, waiting for her head to slowly rise but knowing it would not. Then with a quiet sigh, he stepped back, dusted off his jacket, and spun away from the cell. His little movement kicked up the gold dust, and it rose into the air like a seeker, floating behind him to her like she was a giant magnet. Wolf didn’t see her hand shoot out, one big paw catching the speck. He didn’t see the challenging smirk that sliced across her mouth and the glimpses of the fangs behind it.
Wolf didn’t see her head lift slightly, so she watched him under hooded eyes, walk tall and proud beyond walls she wouldn’t cross for another year.
Wolf would’ve seen it if he had listened to the voice telling him to turn back. Just a little glance. Just to make sure. But he didn’t. His snout tipped high in pride. So he didn’t see.
***
Diane was waiting for him when he got back to their hideout. Being among the couples, they had their own flat detached from the rest of ISGOP HQ. She sat at the table poring over files of their current case, her head lifting when he came in and locked the door. Her smile was warm. She stood, threw her arms around him and gave him a sweet peck.
“Where have you been?”
“Out,” he replied vaguely, knowing she didn’t like it when he was vague and not knowing how to appease her without lying about his whereabouts.
“Out where?” Her eyes narrowed as she pulled back to study him. She knew all of his tells, so he was fashioning new ones and wasn’t even consciously aware of it.
“Took a drive. Needed to clear my head.” The lie came out with a half-truth.
“The case getting to you too, huh?” she glanced back at the table messed with papers and glossy pictures. “So inhumane what those animals are going through.”
“Thankfully, we’re busting them out tomorrow.” He dropped his hands to her waist and picked her up, and she squealed.
“Wolf, we have to work…”
“Work can wait. I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you too but –“ He was shushing her with his lips like she was fond of doing, and felt her melt into his arms like butter on a crumpet.
The thought made him smile against her mouth. That darn Chief and her bad timing.
Diane was kissing him back, and soon all thoughts of police Commissioner and deadly prisoners fled from his head.
She locked her legs around him, allowing his hands to snake up into her shirt, where she released a sigh in response. She cupped his neck, her paws nestling into his fur like the perfect fit. Her other hand expertly unbuttoned his shirt, running it down his chest and eliciting a rumbling purr. Which turned into a growl as Wolf moved purposely toward the dark hallway that led to their bedroom. He wanted her the way he wanted the sun on his face, the rain in his fur, the snow on his snout. It was enough to chip away at his restraint. Diane’s demanding pressing against him was fogging up whatever resolve he had left to not rip her clothes and take her on the floor right there. And from the hungry way she kissed him, she wouldn’t have minded.
Then the phone started to ring.
Diane angled her head, and he chased with his lips, mumbling, “Leave it”
“It could be important,” she mumbled back.
“We’re busy. They’ll call back later.”
“Wolf…” but he wasn’t letting her go, wasn’t letting her speak. He needed to be satiated. He needed her. He was already drunk on the scent of her, on the intoxicating pull of her lips that she was pulling away as the phone started ringing again.
He growled.
“Could be about the case,” she spoke more freely now her lips were no longer locked on his where they should be.
“After,” he muttered raggedly, but knowing the moment was already broken and would go downhill from there.
“Please?” she sounded like she was begging, but her legs were already slipping from his waist, her touch vanishing, leaving huge craters in their wake. She wanted to sound placating but there was no dissuading Diane when she wanted to do something, even if that meant cutting their time short. The rare times he got with her due to the demanding nature of working in ISGOP.
She gave him a quick peck and pulled away fully, dashing for the phone before it stopped its irritating ring. Wolf folded his arms, feeling miserable and hot and greatly bothered. The discomfort in his trousers aching for a release that was now swaying her hips and walking away from him, talking words he couldn’t even listen to from all the blood roaring in his ears.
He sighed, deflating as she continued to talk, and slipped into one of the stools on the kitchen island where they had made it to. His shoulders drooped, his ears flattened when he watched Diane return to the table looking disheveled in an incredibly sexy way, but frowning at files instead of at him when he teased her by going slow.
He sank further into the stool, realizing Diane wasn’t going to look at him again. Now consumed with work. He stood, trailed off into the bedroom with his tail between his legs, to shower and change.
It would be a few more hours before Diane came to bed, slipping in next to him with a tired yawn and apologetic eyes. She smelled like fresh roses and sunlight, her fur silky and enticingly smooth, rubbing against him.
“Tomorrow,” she whispered as she kissed him on the lips, and pulled away before his senses could start to rouse. She nuzzled into him. Her warmth leaving him cold inside.
***
The breakout was massive and bloody, and Shark had gotten a bullet to the shoulder. Still, the Good Guys were successful. The animal experimentation lab was eviscerated, and they escorted the victims to the hospital for recovery. Diane had been so happy and over the moon at the success, she stayed behind to get everything else in order. Webbs joined her. Snake went home with Doom. And after seeing Shark and making sure the big dramatic Bubba was okay, Wolf, not wanting to face a quiet flat when he went home, entered his car and drove to the prison.
The guards were surprised. He hadn’t called. But they let him pass. ISGOP gave them special clearance.
And Wolf went unaccompanied this time to Kitty’s cell. She was lying on her side, facing the wall, her broad back rising and falling with a steady breathing of one fast asleep.
Wolf watched her, saying nothing, holding his breath so he could listen to her breathe, sleep and live in this cell he put her in.
He moved close to the bars, holding it this time, daring her to wake up and lunge, to grab him by the neck and knock his head into the wall.
Kitty didn’t move. Almost as if a great force kept her fastened to the bed.
Wolf stayed longer, breathing with her, living with her on the other side of the bars just for a little while. His head free of thoughts. It was simply a placebo. A messed-up kind of escape, but he welcomed it with a quiet sigh.
The smell of the cell wasn’t that bad. The rats were quiet, their faint chitters echoing in the walls but not disrupting the secluded peace. Wolf felt his shoulders droop till he felt them melting to the ground, his heart beat slowed in his chest to a steady thrum, all the stress of the day, the ache in his muscles, the bruise on his shoulder from where a henchman had thrown him into the concrete wall, everything fell off him. What remained was a tired Wolf, that didn’t even remember how life used to be.
In the silence, he let himself have a moment’s peace.
Then he pulled away, stepped back and walked away. Taking the smell of gunpowder, sweat and blood with him. He didn’t look back. He never did.
And she knew he wouldn’t, so she turned her neck to watch his back, the hunched, tired slump of his walk as he disappeared behind the walls that kept her in.
Wolf returned the next night.
And the next.
And the next.
And the next.
Kitty never looked at him, never spoke to him. He looked at her but couldn’t bring himself to say anything or offer an explanation for his presence. Diane stopped questioning his outings, too busy with work and making plans to catch the next evil mastermind. She smiled at him and spoke to him about work. He smiled back and wanted to kiss away words, and he was almost successful at times.
But he’d find himself returning to the prison at night, to that cell in the forgotten corner where he and Kitty stood like islands separated by a vast sea. But the distance felt less empty, no words necessary. The bars seemed to fade away at times, and Wolf could almost, for one moment, reach out for her, knowing she would reach back.