Flash Fictions *Multiple Fandoms*

The True You (Wolf's Rain) *Kiba/OC*

Fandom: Wolf's Rain.
Pairing: Kiba/OC (Okami Rida).

"Try again!"

"I really don't think it's going to help." Rida staggered to her feet, bruised, sore and aching all over. The hours of trying had done nothing but add to the fatigue and pains of her body.

"How can you be okay with this?" Kiba exclaimed angrily. "This is who you are! It should be second nature to you!"

"Well, it's not, alright?" Rida replied, more exasperated than angry. "Maybe it's not me anymore. Maybe it's just been too long."

She hated how hopeless the words sounded, but she was starting to believe that they were true. Maybe she really had spent too long in human form. She couldn't remember how to shift anymore. It was supposed to be as natural to them as breathing, but she'd still managed to lose that ability somehow. She could barely even remember her life before this one. No amount of Kiba pouncing on her to try and bring out her natural instincts could dredge up that side of her. It was already lost. How had she gone from being alpha... to this?

A small hand slipped inside hers, comforting, truly loving. Rida looked down into amber eyes, set into a porcelain face that was framed by hair like raven's feathers. Even with none of her animal instincts left, Rida had taken in the five-year-old Kanra as her own when she'd found her. The little wolf had quickly become the point which her entire world revolved around. Now Kanra was here for her too.

"It's okay," she promised in that knowing tone that had always been too old for her years. "It's okay if you can't do it. I like you just the way you are."

Kiba knocked her arm away, ruining the moment and making the young girl gasp. "No, it's not okay!"

"Don't touch her!" Rida snarled, instinctively moving in front of Kanra.

Something flashed in Kiba's eyes, as he looked between the two of them. "I know the true you is still in there - it's just buried deep beneath this human facade. And I know how to draw it out."

He leapt at her again, this time still in his human form, but with the power rippling clear through his body. Rida was able to jump out of his way, but only just. "I told you I don't want to try anymore!" she shouted.

"Then you have turned your back on yourself, Kanra, me and the rest of your kind!" Kiba skidded to a halt and turned to Kanra this time.

Rida snarled again, seeing what he was planning. "Don't you even think about it..."

Part of her thought that surely he wouldn't, but his body began to tremble, signalling the change, and then he shifted. His transformation was always smooth, perfect, completely natural, as brown hair, blue eyes and that pretty face gave way to downy white fur, intense golden eyes and a lean, strong lupine build. His wolf form was just as beautiful as his human one - maybe even more so. But Rida didn't have time to appreciate his ability to transform so perfectly, as she usually did, because he did the last thing he should have dared to and threw himself, sharp claws and snarling fangs at little, unprotected Kanra.

It was like something snapped inside her. Rida leapt into Kiba's path with a fury and speed that she'd completely forgotten she possessed. As she dove for him, it felt as if her entire being had ripped itself apart. Fur exploded from every inch of her. She was struck by incredible pain as bones realigned, muscles stretched and her form took on another, entirely different shape. But she knew the pain was only from lack of use. With the pain came exhilaration. She knew now. This was what she was made for. The transformation was as natural to her as breathing. How could she have ever forgotten it?

She slammed into Kiba with such force that it took both of them to the ground, white and auburn entangled together. They rolled across the grass, though more playfully now that Kiba had finally proven his point, each fighting to try and pin the other, both yipping happily. Rida won out, still riding the high of finally discovering how to give in to her true nature again.

Kiba changed back to his human form, laughing for the first time since Rida had met him. She copied him and found it just as easy and as natural to slip back. The best of both worlds.

"I knew you could do it," Kiba smiled up at her. If Rida hadn't known any better, she would have said there was some pride in his face. "You just needed the right push."

"That was some push!" Rida couldn't help but laugh. "But try that again and I might rediscover how to bite too!"