we can get away with this
#1
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She felt a little bit better today, and had decided to head outside for a little while to sit in the sun. The large pup lay on her back on a dark rock, soaking up some of the rays. It wasn't particularly warm outside today, but the rock had collected a lot of the heat from the sun and it felt nice to lay out on it. She almost couldn't feel the chill of the wind, her back felt so nice and warm.

Addi rolled over onto her stomach, closing her eyes. It felt nice to be able to do this, to roll over onto her tummy. Usually her tummy was really upset, and it hurt to lay down on it. But today it felt kind of nice. The heat of the rock warmed her, relaxing her even further.




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#2
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Unsurprisingly, Jefferson had... well, he'd panicked when he'd discovered Addison gone that morning. Half the ranch house had been thrown apart, books and other small items and trinkets strewn this way in the mass chaos that resulted from the flustered Patriarch's brief insanity and panic; that is, until he made his way outside and continued the hysteria there. Looking this way and that, the big softie had forced even his right arm into motion, as painful as it was to continually move it around and apply such pressure to it. He could hardly lift anything with it, but what could be done with it was, and after some time the brute was doing more cussing and swearing out of sheer pain than he was searching anymore. Damn, he now knew for sure that children would not be the hell worth the trouble.


And then, when it got to be a bit too much, he went inside and retrieved the stray fabric he'd recently found with the intention of forming into a new sling. Jefferson had gone a few weeks without one; no, there was no particular need for the sling, as his arm was not healing anymore, but keeping the arm cooped up and out of the way meant less strain on the muscles that ached so badly within, and that was plenty enough for him. Sling in hand, he started working the fabric this way and that one-handed while his eye searched as he circled the ranch house--only to actually spot the little girl, almost sunbathing in the dead of winter. He stared at her from a distance a long while before releasing the worst of frustrated sighs. It was then that he realized that nothing had gotten him so worked up before he'd believed to have lost her one way or another--he hadn't reacted in such a way when he'd found out his identity, nor when Deuce had left him in charge of the pack without any expectations, nor when Iskata had been hurt or eventually killed one way or another. The innocent little pup was something he'd only known a few weeks, and yet she already possessed a great deal of his life and emotions. What would Geneva had said? Certainly she would have analyzed it. ...Why was he thinking of Geneva? Damn that girl and her... ways. "Addison, you almost gave me a goddamn heart attack," he groaned as he stumbled closer to her, only to plop down on the ground beside her laying body. She looked perfectly happy there. "What are you doing out here, anyway?"

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#3
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"Washoo mean, Jeff?" She had no idea what his words could mean; a heart attack? What was that? She knew what an attack was--she'd attacked him a few times when they had been playing--but his heart was getting attacked? Maybe it meant that his heart was attacking itself. Or something like that! "Heart esploded??"

Addison sat up, looking at him curiously, her tail wagging quickly back and forth. She could tell that the tone in his voice was different than usual, but didn't know what the change in tone meant. Jefferson had a rough way of speaking to begin with--sometimes she couldn't tell if he was really angry with her, or if he was annoyed, or if he was kidding around with her. Occasionally she would hear one of his curse words, but not very often. "Godddddammit" She repeated. "I's feeling the nice warm sun, goddammit! Makes my tummy felt nice." She leaned over, trying to pat at him with her paw. "What ish YOU doing out here?"

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#4
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Due to his rather obvious inexperience with children, Jefferson was still very slowly learning the actual differences between they and adults--and, of course, how easily influenced they were. It wasn't any help that the Patriarch was Addison's only real role model in Phoenix Valley, considering she'd appeared completely alone and without any other connections to the other creatures and faces in these or any other lands he knew of, or at least as far as Jefferson actually could assume. The one-eyed male sighed, deciding not to try and actually explain the meaning behind a heart attack, believing that it could be saved for another day. It was then that he realized that he could eventually be the one explaining life, death, love, and hate to her one day, and he could have fallen over backwards by the thought of how overwhelming a conversation it would become, coming out of his mouth.


"You worried me, that's what I meant." He scowled as always, straightened his back, and widened his eye when she repeated his curse. The male had to resist all strong urges and temptations to silence her with a hand over her mouth as if to muffle the sound and make it not exist. "Addison! Don't! Ergh..." The male's face flushed, and he quickly rubbed at his temples with his free hand to settle the sudden frustration. "Don't... Don't say that. It's a bad word. Jefferson says bad words, but you don't. Okay?" Hell. He was no parent. Didn't her mother ever teach her anything? ...She was only a month old or something. Of course not. It wasn't the first time she'd done it, either, and he'd gotten just as stressed out each time before. He sighed. "I came to find you. What if your mom came and got you, and I never found out?" He feared it, really. He feared her mother showing up.

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#5
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Just being close to Jefferson made her smile really big. He always took really good care of her and made sure that she had everything that she could need. A lot of the time she felt really sick, and threw up the food that he brought her, but he was really nice about it. Whenever she threw up she got pretty scared, and it was a relief to have someone else around. She had never gotten sick before, when she had lived with Dierdre and Cerulean, so it was all new. "I sowwy, Jeff. Make'd you worrying"

She didn't quite understand what she had done wrong when Jefferson made that face at her. It wasn't a really good face, so she knew that she had said something...and then it was made clear to her. She had said a bad word. Addison hadn't known that there was such a thing as a bad word, just that there were words. And why was Jefferson able to say it and she wasn't? "Why? Why? Why?" She asked, pushing her paws against him.

The girl wasn't sure what she would do if her mother did come back for her. She'd thought that Dierdre would be there the day after she'd come, or maybe the day after that, but she hadn't arrived yet. "I don't fink she be comin'. But if she did come, I come get you. Then she meets you too" Addi shook her head. "I can stay here. Wiv you. And today I feels better...lots better than before. Ready for food!"

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#6
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Fuck, he wasn't a father. He couldn't have been a proper role model nor a paternal figure in any real fashion even if he'd tried. The girl was still clinging to him like glue, however--not that she had a choice--though she'd wandered away from him that morning, ironically enough. When she apologized, he smiled a little and nodded his head, offering her only a gentle pat on the head in return. She was a good kid; being under his care would probably turn out to be a bad idea one way or another, but neither of them really had any other choice. Addison was separated from her mother and defenseless as a result, and Jefferson was a one-eyed idiot who had to show some level of responsibility alongside his morals and soft spot for children.


He was too old to teach children, let alone father one. Right? "Because," he muttered. Apparently that was the best he could answer right away. The brute stuttered a moment before finding some sort of excuse or reasoning to get through to her. "Because I said so. You're too young to talk like that." He gently lifted her at the scruff with his hand and placed her away to cease the pup's endless kneading at his leg. Jefferson was not only learning how to teach the girl some sort of morals, but he was also putting up with her odd, ever-wavering behaviors and questions. She could be sick one day and fine the next; children were like a whirlwind, and somehow he never managed to get out of the spiraling winds. "You're hungry already?" Damn, how much did kids eat?

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#7
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"Otay." She was already focused on her belly, and easily gave in to whatever Jefferson was telling her about what words she wasn't supposed to say. In one ear and out the other. The girl hadn't been taught how to hunt at all--she had left her mother too early for that--but had learned that it was a good thing to agree with whatever an adult told you. It made the food come faster! Her mother would tell her to go to the stream and wash up her paws sometimes before Addison ate if her paws were really muddy and gross, and she would hurry to go and do that so that she could get her supper.

Her favorite thing to eat was cat. It tasted the best! She could remember her parents putting one or two over the fire for her when they had lived on the outskirts of the city. There had been quite a few cats around that area. The pigeons had been really yummy, too, she remembered. For some reason, they didn't have very many cats around this place though. She hadn't seen any. Maybe Jefferson had, though. And he was big enough to catch one. "Yessss! You is see'd a cat? I can has it? For eating?"

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#8
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Jefferson took a moment to actually consider what her hometown of California was like and how she'd ended up across an entire country and into another one, no less. The mentioning of a cat sent his fur standing on end--the immediate mental image was that of this small child eating a downed black panther or something similar--but after a moments' worth of actual consideration, he narrowed the creature down to something the size of a housecat. He'd never eaten such a thing, nor did he even want to consider it a delicacy. After all, he'd had his share of chomping down on wolf flesh during combat and whatnot, and it had never particularly been a taste he... enjoyed.


"Cats... no." His single eye peered at her, perplexed, before he shrugged his shoulders. "You're not in California anymore, Adds. We don't have... cats." He glanced off to the side, supposing that he could have been hungry himself, but... with all the extra hunting he'd done lately for the bottomless pit she had for a stomach, it wasn't exactly something he was excited to do. "What do you say you start learning how to hunt?" He didn't bother to wait for her approval of the concept. Instead, he rose to his feet and started away. "Come on. I'm sure you can catch a rabbit or something." He was the parent, right? He was briefly amused that she had no real choice but to listen to him--and then realized that his rank and underlings were the same, and that brief amusement was dispersed rather quickly.


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#9
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She had never questioned the food that her parents had brought her, the scraps of meat. Addison had never seen the whole entire cat before she ate it, just the ones that ran around their block and ate all the mice...she had only seen the pieces that Dierdre and Cerulean had brought. Sometimes they brought home tails, and let her play with those to tire her out after supper was over.

Just like she had in the situation with her parents, she wouldn't question the food that Jefferson brought her. It was very nice to have an adult getting food for you, and normally she was too hungry and ate too quickly to even really notice what flavor the meat had. As long as it filled her up, she would try and eat it.

"Yes! Hunting!" She managed before the larger wolf rose up and started off into the forest. She would hunt something for herself! Then, if she ever went back to California, she could catch a bunch of cats for herself. "Someday I will bring you's home a big cat and you can try it!"She said, running quickly to keep up with him. She didn't know where they were going, or where any rabbits lived, but he seemed to know what direction to go.



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#10
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He wasn't the greatest hunter himself; three legs meant he could not run, or at least not very well. Granted, when he needed to, he ran--but never for reasons like hunting. When he had to fight, that useless fourth leg was undeniably used--the pain from overuse usually attacked for days on end thereafter, but in the midst of battle, he couldn't feel a thing but rage and determination. That blind rage that encompassed his battles and whited out his memory of it all later was only useful for that reason. But as for hunting... well, he'd learned how to be quiet enough to catch what he needed, and he always just did so on two legs where he had enough speed to get what needed to be done, done.


Jefferson's steps slowed somewhat as his nose was raised to the wind, detecting the smell of some easy prey. Eye flashed from side to side; an early-rising squirrel was scavenging out in the open. They were generally the same speed as a rabbit, or so he'd observed in his younger months when four legs were of use. Quite a bit less meat, but squirrels were far more common than rabbits this time of year one way or another, so Addison could catch as many as she wanted as long as she did it right and didn't send them sprawling up a tree. "All right, Addi... you see the squirrel?" His voice had dropped to a low, careful whisper and he motioned subtly at the small animal in the distance. "Watch me and be quiet. I'm going to creep up on it slowly and as quietly as I can, and then grab it." He turned and started for it; two legs were the worst of things to hunt with, as he was like a tower over the small things and further from the ground altogether. The Patriarch made a silent, careful slink towards it as it moved this way and that, paying little mind to his approach. Of course, as he neared it, a misguided twig found itself under his heel and promptly snapped in half. The squirrel was off running just like that, and he darted right after it, cussing and swearing obscenities as he went.


It got up a tree and to safety shortly thereafter, leaving a bitter-eyed Jefferson glaring up the tree after it, panting and trying to catch his out-of-shape breaths. "Goddamn," he grumbled loudly, then shook his head and looked at Addison. "Well, you get the idea. Go find one."

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#11
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She'd never tried hunting for herself, but she wasn't afraid of trying. Addison usually tried everything once or twice before she decided if she would like it. Of course, things that Jefferson told her not to do she wouldn't try. She was slowly learning that he did know what was best for her. Every time she tried to do something that he had told her not to do, she ended up getting into some trouble or almost getting hurt.

Blue and gold eyes watched avidly as he stalked the squirrel, the chase ending with the creature sitting safely up in one of the trees. So that was how it was supposed to go? But how would Jefferson get it back down out of the tree so he could eat it? Maybe what he had done wasn't what was supposed to happen. He hadn't ended up with the squirrel.

The girl sniffed at the areas that the squirrel had been sitting in, picking up its smell. So that was the squirrel smell. She could smell another one, but the scent was fainter than the fresh one that she'd just smelled. She started off, her nose pressed down against the leaves, going in several different directions until the smell started to get stronger. There was one nearby! She watched for it, getting low to the ground like Jefferson had and scooting forward quietly. She could see it.

Being smaller and lighter did have a few advantages, and she managed to get fairly close to the animal before it noticed her presence. Addison kept quiet, turning her head back to look at Jefferson. Was this right? Should she jump now? She was within a couple of feet of the squirrel when instinct took hold, springing her forward. Just as soon as she lept from the brush the squirrel turned, though, looking for a nearby tree. She closed her eyes and lunged forward, feeling her teeth snap down on something. Something...furry! She'd caught the squirrel by the last few inches of its tail. Unsure of what to do now, and with the animal struggling furiously and scrabbling around, she looked around for her caretaker. It was going to get away soon--she could barely keep her hold in it.



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#12
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Jefferson was unsurprisingly delighted by the fact that the child was able to catch the squirrel in his place, though she had the advantage of four legs, youth, and a stance much closer to the ground than he in his two-legged Luperci form. She was a fast learner, but he knew that already; Addison had very quickly adapted to mimicking him in some of his everyday activities, from looking clueless at the pages of a book to cooperating her gait to follow his--limp and all, sometimes. It was charming, delightful; he quite enjoyed her presence and company, even if she'd become a headache... and would not have given up that supposed parenthood to the world. Her real mother would not steal her away from him now.


"Good, good!" He beamed proudly, as if she'd taken her first steps or mumbled her first words. The one-eyed brute lumbered closer, leaning down on a knee to reach her level. "There, see? You did even better than I did." Jefferson took all means to keep himself from thinking she'd inherited some genetics of his somewhere, some of the hunting skills that once were at the top of their peak when he'd had four legs, but that was nonsense. She wasn't of his blood at all. The squirrel was still squirming this way and that in the clutch of her jowls, displeased and frantic. The cyclops gently took it from her mouth, holding it strongly in his fist so that the rat's beady eyes blinked horrors up at him. His thumb was habitually placed along its neck. "Now, what you do next is--" He froze. He couldn't kill it... He couldn't kill it right in front of her. She wasn't ready for that yet... was she? Hesitance overwhelmed; after a moment's peace, he breathed in and out and delicately replaced the squirrel to the soil, where it scattered immediately. "Well, the rest can wait for another day. You can keep practicing until then. You got that?" Green eye affixed on her confidently, a smug smile set on his face.


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#13
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I love Jefferson <3


Sometimes with Jefferson, things got confusing for her. He reminded her a lot of her own dad, scarred up and gruff...but with a fierce, caring side deep down. Cerulean had always taken time to show her things if she hadn't understood, and had told her that she could do anything if she put her mind to it. Jeff always encouraged her like that too, delighting in her triumphs and bringing her spirits back up when she felt defeated. He was so much like Cerulean that she sometimes felt the word slipping out without her thinking about it. The D word. She wouldn't have minded calling him dad, but she didn't know what he thought about it. He took real good care of her, but he wasn't her real dad. But would it be ok for her to call him that anyway, and pretend?

As soon as the squirrel was out of her mouth she was shouting, squealing and jumping up and down. "I did it! I did it!! I got it!" She could barely believe it herself! Jeff was continuing the lesson, though, and she stopped jumping so that she could watch what he was doing with his hands. The squirrel looked really frightened, and she wondered whether it was time to let it go now. She had probably hurt its tail, biting it like that, and it would need some time to heal probably. "Yeah! Now it can go back home to its family" She smiled, watching the animal scamper away. The squirrel was going to go home and see its children and its mate, probably. And then Jefferson and her would go home too. They were a family, like the squirrel and its family. "We can go home too, Dad?"

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#14
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Closing this!


He watched her pride in success and smiled right along with her, the proud father in denial. He was no father, after all, he was just her guardian for the time being. Jefferson watched the squirrel hurry back into the wild, grateful for its allowed freedom and another chance to live. It was returning to its family, Addison said. The Patriarch's smile wavered a little, wondered if she felt even a little empathy for the creature. If her mother and father came back into view, would Addison run away to them again? Would he be left behind so easily?


Instead, just as the questioning began to overwhelm his thoughts, her smile and eyes peered up at him. Dad. The scarred male stared down at her in shock and surprise, almost afraid of such words being uttered his way. Addison knew that Jefferson wasn't her true father; could he really so easily replace the man that really shared her blood? Did she really consider the two some sort of family? He and Addison, a family? Slowly but surely, the male's smile began to return, his anxiety soothed, and he nodded his head confidently at his... "daughter". "...Sure, Addison," he said slowly, wrapping his careful hand around her and gently placing her at his shoulder as he rose to his feet. "Let's head home."

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