Starting life over with family

Alastor cringed inwardly when Kichi asked about what happened to his fur. Sure, it had started to grow back in its usual colors and patterns, but it was still noticeably shorter than the dense coat he'd had before. "It's a long story, but in short, I took a bath with something that didn't agree with my fur," he remarked with a hollow chuckle. Fucking firefly demon thing... Kichi asked about the band, and Alastor's expression visibly lightened up at the change of subject. "There's nine of us currently. You'll be our tenth member of the family. Myself, Manea, our two children, our servant, a close friend of mine, and an assortment of Manea's relatives." In time, Kichi would meet with them all, so he felt no need to go into details about each and every single one of them.

On their way back, Manea intercepted them, clearly having been not far behind Alastor himself. The dark brute greeted his mate with a wide grin and a chipper, "Hello, darling!" Then he stepped to sit beside Manea while his wife greeted and spoke to Kichi for the first time. Being so close to Alastor, Kichi's arrival had already come with a good word from the second-in-command, but Kichi would still need to make a decent impression on Manea. Of this, Alastor had no worries. Kichi was rough around the edges when it came to social interactions—a side effect of living in solitude for so long—but he had a good heart and a sharp brain. He'd do fine.

Just as he predicted, Kichi spoke with courteous manners to Manea, doing well. Alastor felt no need to interject; Kichi could handle his own. Instead, he contented himself to watch his surrogate brother and his mate interact, glancing down to Torch when the tiny deer gave a bleating bark. He smirked and raised a paw to his lips in a shushing motion to the small deer. He'd have to make sure no one in the band tried to eat Kichi's beloved pet.


"Alastor"