Game night

The Apartment

"has anyone ever told you, you walk funny?"

Arthur's gaze turned away from the thin closet mounted mirror in dantes apartment, continuing to pick bits of leaves out of his antlers, the deer could smell what the wolf was holding even before he even appeared from the kitchen, his sense of smell wasn't dampened by the city as dantes was, but even so it was to strong for him not to notice he thought

"funny? Like clown funny or skinwalker kinda funny"

"like, you walk like someone who's lived on a ship their whole life"

Dante knew why Arthur walked like that, he was wild, Arthur had lived his whole adult life in the Forrest, and his adolescent life being cared for by facility workers, Arthur's legs and hooves where accustomed to running on uneven rocks and bounding over rivers, not pavement and asphalt, he just wanted to hear Arthur talk about the Forrest, and buck, and yansa.

"there aren't any bear traps here, or rocks so I don't have to watch my feet when I walk, it's freeing"

"so you walk like that in your cabin?"

"yeah Pretty much, though buck gets a little annoyed when I knock over his gun"

Dante smiled imagining it going off comically in the middle of the night and waking up the whole place, he loved that type of humour especially when it happened to anyone but him

"don't worry, I'll be sure to nail it to the floor next time I'm over"

He handed Arthur the coffee he made, and sipped his own, Arthur had a tendency to have night terrors and would venture down to his apartment from the Forrest to chat and have coffee, it was a pleasant new routine for Dante as he rarely slept well either, and spending hours of futile time attempting to get back to sleep was starting to drive him whackadoodle.

Arthur eyed the cup suspiciously and sniffed it, the scent was unpleasant and filled every part of his muzzle without consent .

"this is what everyone here loves so much?"

"yeah basically, even nocturnal animals wake up at sunrise with this stuff"

"that seems unhealthy I'm not sure if I want to try it this time"

"oh come on you liked all the other stuff"

Dante sat down on his old stretch marked leather couch that came with the apartment and gestured to the plate of salt and vinegar Rice cakes sat atop a scatter of old missing person posters, Arthur did like those, mostly for the salt, dante had slowly been trying to ween him into "city food " for quite a while, first it was caramel, then bowling, then corn dogs, Arthur ate so many of those he threw up all over Dantes new jumper.

He thought what the hell, and took a sip, it tasted like dirt and the roots

" *gulp * god...."

Putting the cup next to the rice cakes, intending to leave it there until the sun blew up, he sat next to dante and looked around, his apartment was very, unique to put it in a polite way.

He was not exactly an organised person.

The apartment was a masculine edition of the word kitchy, with his furniture being picked purely based on vibes and whatever could be thrifted, most of it was wood or leather with varying degrees of wood colour and design, the coffee table was a hand made art deco peice, the closet was a hand me down from ikea, and the varying chests of drawers and bookshelves were a mismatch of red mahogany and white oak, reminiscent of an Alice in wonderland chapter, he was not poor mind you, his work paid well but he spent his wealth in "other" places.

But there was one themed Ribon that tied the place together.

The papers.

As a detective who had to keep his work under the radar he used alot of paper to avoid being tracked by any "three letter agencies" as he said, and his insomnia would cause him to loose track of his cases and begin new ones or pick up cold cases, by the time he got proper sleep he would have created piles and piles of loose papers and files, as well as a spiders nest of red string, Arthur recalled the time a fly mechanic came to fix his air conditioning and had a panic attack upon being caught in dantes web.

"you don't like the coffee then eh, oh well"

He shrugged and got comfortable into his couch the way men do before telling something heavy, smooshing himself into the folds like pocket change, though with his sooty fur being so thick the couch mushed itself into him

"i appreciate you coming down by the way, even though you were sleeping fine"

"no worries, it's a rarity but this seemed important"

"yeah it is, do you remember that iron kid, Vandameers fledgling", he said taking an uncomfortable sip from his cup

Arthur tried to recall everything he knew about iron, which wasn't much, he was a really shy kid

"uuuuh, yeah, he kind of resembles you, he doesn't really talk to anyone, he's kind of an outsider"

Dantes ears flattened against his head
"not to me funnily enough."

He looked away from Arthur for a second down at his paws and then back up, his ears returning to their upright state

"the kid... Me and the kid are close, he trusts me you know, he follows vandy to come see me sometimes at work... I think he might know about ... You know"

Arthur noded in recognition and remained silent, letting Dante get what he needed off his chest, the air felt a little thicker now

"yeah ok, you know"

Dante finished his coffee and picked up Arthur's and began to hastily gulp it down

"he saw me yesterday at that diner, the one by sugar road with the uh.. The croissants... , he looked really bad, his eyes where all watery and he was dirty."

He began to trace the rim of the cup

"he would mumble out something I couldn't understand when I asked him what happened, and sat by me watching me work on that domergue case file for a while, then he started sobbing and clutching onto my coat and he spilled everything....."

Arthur's ears flattened against his head

"what happened, did he..."

He put his hand over his sleeved arm and reflexively gently rubbed it, stopping when he realised what he was doing

Dante sighed