Picking Up the Pieces [Closed to Kuromaru and Ryouma]
[[Takes place March 20th, one day after Don't Wanna Fight This War and two days after Make it Right.]]


Kuromaru picked up the plush puppy, now missing its other eye, and trotted out the door.

"Where're you going?" Tsume called after him, her voice drifting down the hall.

"To see Ryouma!" He didn't know if she understood--his mouth was full of stuffed dog--but he didn't wait to find out, either. At some point she'd remember that even if he was injured, she wasn't his alpha--had never been his alpha--and he didn't have to answer to her.

Ryouma was the alpha!

Kuromaru stretched out his legs, covering ground rapidly. Down the corridor, past the elevators, around another corner and back up, following the hall to the other side of the U-shape. He dropped his plush puppy on the floor and rose onto his hind legs, pawing at a door handle.

It didn't turn. He dropped down, bit the knob carefully, squeezed until the metal dented under his teeth, and turned.

It still didn't turn.

Kuromaru sat back on his haunches and glowered. "Ryouuuuuuma!" he howled at long last.