((Sunday, May 13th, 3572. Eaaaaarly morning. Like, 2am.))

It wasn't even light out, and there he was, forced to go over to the farm with a slumbering girl in his arms and a half-asleep dog toddling along beside him. He'd driven most of the way, his young charges slumbering in the back, Maka doing the same up front. She'd made a good effort, his wife-to-be, with staying awake - she just hadn't been able to pull it off. He didn't mind until he had to rouse her from her slumber, smiling a bit to himself. He always felt awful, waking her or their little girl. Like mother, like daughter; they both looked almost too at peace when sleeping.

Thankfully, their pet didn't need any prodding. He offered a too-large yawn, all teeth and a curled tongue before groaning and padding out of the hovercar, parked off a ways until he'd come back for it a week later. Nier knew that some of the others had the half-month to spare.... but neither he nor his wife did. Not with jobs so closely tied to the Regime itself. It was already such a risk, what they were doing, with the careers they had.

It would only get worse if they weren't careful.

He scratched at the back of his head, following behind the bouncing white form of Azzuril with his baby in his arms. She squirmed a bit, sighing in half-sleep up at him, "I wanna sleep s'more, Daddy." He simply shushed her, carrying her forwards to where they had agreed to leave their girls and the pets that needed regular feeding on the farm. They'd all be safe there, in the careful hands of Gwynell and Murray.

But he wouldn't have been a father if he didn't worry. Still, he nodded ahead to everybody, letting his wife meet up with the others as she pleased as he proceeded over towards his king. At least, that had been where he'd been going, until his damn dog went barking off in another direction. It was just the one yap, really, something he'd never heard him do before. And then he was off, back the way they'd come as more people came up.

"Oh for the love of... Azzuril! Come on, they're just more of ours!" Foolish fucking thing. Normally obedient though he was, he certainly wasn't listening right then. Ugh. He glanced at his daughter, already waking up with a small pout, and then again at the retreating mutt. Right. He was going to have to chase a half-wolf across a farm with a little girl in his arms. And he'd thought that being awake at two in the moring was the worst thing that could happen to him that day.

It was weird, going to Venus without Tal or Han. Damn weird. At least they knew why she was going, and had agreed to stay, just to keep the numbers down and keep themselves safe should things to pearshaped. Amina grumbled as she tripped over a stone. She couldn't see a damn thing, it was two in the damn morning and they'd had to meet at the damn farm before riding back to the damn city to get to the damn shuttleport. It was too damn early.

She hated being nightblind. Made her feel defenseless, almost wanting to be skittish despite the fact that everyone was a friend. Still couldn't figure out how she had caught up to Raen at night in Treq, the night Raen had been awakened. Sheer dumb luck and adrenaline. Had to be it. There was a sound, a sound she hadn't heard before - or had she?

For such a little creature it could really make noise when it wanted. He could really make noise, Minu corrected herself. She held the puppy gently in her lap, his still closed eyes causing him to root into her belly for warmth, seeking food. He wouldn't find it there. He was a special one, Peke told her, not just because of who his parents were, but because he was going to be hers. The little fenrir had already nipped at her when she went to first pet him. No one had picked him for her, just told her that one of this litter was to be her fenrir. She'd pet all of them. He was the only one that had turned and bit her.

Since he had bit her and lost his bond-tooth, that signified to them that the bond was made. He hadn't spoken to her yet, but he was just born. Couldn't be expected to, not really.
"Roshan," a voice said suddenly in her head, high and bright like her little brothers'. Oh. Oh! Peke grinned at her as she blurted the name out. The five year old took the bottle he handed to her, preparing to feed her little fenrir, Roshan. He was so pretty, all white and soft and cuddly. If Peke and Mima let her, maybe he could sleep with her in her bed until he got too big?

Amina wondered hazily why she was on her back on the ground. There was a form standing over her, but it was too small to be a person. Big enough for Raen, but entirely the wrong size. It would be her wife to decide that she wanted to start touching her now, when they really didn't have the time. Ow!

The Venusian jerked her shoulder out of the creature's hold, hissing in pain at the bite. It was licking her. It was licking her. Yet for what ever reason, she couldn't make herself push it off. No, not this creature. She just couldn't hurt it.

"Mama!" Wait. What? "MAMA! Mamamamamamamamamamamamamama!" The fuck? Something was in her head calling her Mama. "MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA!" She had to be dreaming. She fell asleep, and is dreaming. Yeah.
"MAMAMAMAMAMA!"

Where the hell was that thing going?

He was thankful more often than not for his built-in athleticism. It came with being a Jovian, and with being himself, really. Nephrite and Nikolas hadn't exactly been slouches themselves, workhorses though they were. The former was all endurance and strength, the latter, a bit more of speed. He liked to think he was built to be some combination of both of them, the best of two worlds. He was keeping up with a wolf hybrid, which had to mean something, at least.

Especially considering he was still carrying his girl, who was now fully awake. Just in time to watch as their beloved family pet knocked Amina over and bit into her shoulder. He almost froze, skidding to a halt just short of the pair as Iskra screamed and screamed. She didn't know what else to do, and he'd have to talk to her later about appropriate responses. Now, now was not the time. Now he had to be the big, tough military guy who was built for action.

Nier dove for Azzuril, barking a sharp, "No, bad dog!" at him in the process. He pushed against familiar white fur as gently as he could whilst making sure that he was going to remove the beast from his... acquaintance? Friend? Partner in crimes yet to be committed? Whatever she was, she had a wife that was making a sharp growling noise from up ahead, a sure sign that his dog was about to fry in front of his kid.

"Iskra!" he started, thinking on his feet as he held a hand down to Amina in an effort to help her up, "Why don't you go see Auntie Raen?" Preferably before she came over and killed their dog in front of her. He could already see her barrelling towards them, looking some combination of thrilled and harmless. Or, you know, the opposite of both of those.

Thankfully, his daughter never said no to hugs. There was a pounding of feet, and then a yelp and thump as a certain Martian went down with his girl (crying her eyes out and saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry! He's a good puppy, he is!" like it was the only chant she knew) on top of her. He, meanwhile, was trying his best to keep the monster off of a Venusian.

Holy hell, this was exactly why he hated early morning adventures. Everything always fell to shit. "You alright, Mi?"

There was really only one thing she could do in this situation. A voice in her head was yelping MAMA at her, Iskra was screaming, Raen growling, the damn thing - dog, she'd come to realize, damn dog - had bit her through her shirt, and now there were fibers in her wound, not to mention this had been one of her favorite shirts. So she did the one thing she could do. Yell at the voice.
"Be quiet!" The last thing she expected was a whine coming from the dog standing over her - and what the fuck, it was licking her and her wound hurt less, but Ruro wasn't there pouring his magic into her or anything - a dog with magic spit?!

She barely had time to add this last odd thing to the compendium of madness this trip was already turning out to be when suddenly the dog was off her and Nier was there extending a hand.
"I'm fine. No, really, I'm fine." Amina said, feeling at her left shoulder with her right hand, surprised at the lack of wound to be found there. She stood with his help, amazed. Yes, her shirt was in tatters at the shoulder, but the skin wasn't broken any longer. It didn't even hurt.
"Sorry, Mama. Please no mad, Mama? Was bond, Mama. I love you, Mama, please no mad!" The Venusian blinked at the voice, like a young boy trying to hold back tears.
"Er. Who are you?" She didn't even realize she was as good as talking to empty air, at least until the dog sidestepped Nier and came up to her, nudging at her stomach, looking up at her with golden eyes.

Wait. She could see. And was it the dog talking to her, or was she hallucinating?
"You're who's talking to me?"
"Yes, Mama. I Roshan." The dog nodded, it's - his - muzzle rooting around her stomach. Oh great Aphrodite. How could she have forgotten? She dropped to her knees, hugging him around the neck.
"Ro, oh Ro. Oh, Roshan." Amina laughed, sniffling a little. "My great big fenrir, I love you, my Ro." To say that she was lost in a little world of woman-and-dog or woman-and-wolf or mother-and-child, a reverse version of the mythos of Romulus and Remus, well, that would be telling.

There was another growl, albeit softer, from behind. Iskra was doing her job, then, calming Raen. Or at the very least, she was stopping her from doing the things her face said she wanted to do to their family pet. That was for the best. He had originally just thought fire, but the look in her eyes read blood. His daughter held onto the slightly taller girl's arm, tugging her over at her own speed, instead of the breakneck runs of certain doom.

He helped her wife up in a hurry, praying it'd spare something and not so much focusing on the part where she was insisting she was fine. He knew about the Venusian condition, when it came to night. He peered at her carefully, trying to get a good glimpse at her shoulder. There had been blood before, he knew that much. He was really hoping his dog hadn't licked it all up off of her. That... that would have been awkward. "You were bleeding. Sorry, my dog - "

And then she was sobbing on it, like it was some long-lost puppy of hers. He stopped, scratching at his head briefly as he glanced between the woman who had killed his Martian, and the reason why she had done it to gauge their reactions a little bit better. The former seemed... overjoyed? And the latter seemed furious, but nothing new there. He stared hard at his little girl, quirking an eyebrow that clearly said, deal with this. She led her over carefully, seemingly thinking that was for the best, and he couldn't say that he blamed her.

He somehow got the feeling that this was going to be a goodbye to his family pet, watching as he panted and snuggled into the Venusian. "I take it you two know each other," he commented around the same time both Iskra and Raen chimed in, two very different opinions.

"You can keep him, Auntie Mi, but only if you're n-nice to him, okay?" came muttered through tears, followed only by a growl.

"You are not keeping him."

And as for him? Well, the commander couldn't honestly couldn't have cared less which way it went. One less dog pissing in his yard was a plus for him, even if it meant he'd likely need to get his Iskra a new pet.

"Mama, Starman talking." Roshan said, his words prompting his bondee to look up at the Jovian above her.
"He's Roshan, Nier. I don't know if you remember him, my fenrir - or, well, Minu - or I suppose Venus' - fenrir - this is him, again, alive. I don't know if you had any form of bond with your animals beyond riding them, but all of us had magic bonds with ours, so this... this is amazing." She stroked a hand down his ear, relishing the fur beneath her hands. This was unbelievable still. Roshan excricated himself from her grasp gently, giving her a last nuzzle.
"Be back, Mama!" Immediately he walked over to Iskra and Raen, yapping out a happy "Mommy!" to Raen but doing nothing else to her, it seemed he remembered how Ariana didn't appreciate anything of that nature. Iskra got conciderably more attention, licks up her face and nuzzling into. "Flowergirl no cry," he said.

"I'll take good care of him, Iskra, and he wants me to tell you not to cry. You can come over and play with him as often as you want, and you'll have him when we're on Venus. It'll be too hot for him." Roshan looked back at her as Amina spoke, whining slightly.
"Mama no stay? But Mama go home-home, Roshan want home-home too!"
"No, Ro," Amina managed. "You can't come with me, home-home not the same." The dog quietly woofed his discontent but did nothing beyond that, perking up at her next comment.
"You play with Flowergirl and others while I'm not here." He grinned at her, tongue out between his teeth, and barraged her with his names for everyone. Seemed he had one for everyone in their little band. Interesting, considering they were all the names he had made for them in the Silver Millenium, but for the girls who had gotten new names.

Amina couldn't resist running a soothing hand up Raen's arm as she led her away so that her dog could effecitvely treat Iskra's case of tears and involve the little girl with getting ot go greet the other half-asleep children. Poor Gwynell and Murray, what a handful they'd have to deal with this go-around, and by themselves.

Iskra's tears were a lot like most of her emotions - temporary things that always fell back to her default. She giggled, taking her former puppy's head in both hands, playing with his fur. If nothing else, she was awake, bright-eyed and... understanding nothing of the situation at hand. Like how Amina had just outright said that this was some dog of the past reborn. Hers, apparently.

He rubbed his chin, then shrugged. "They were just animals, to us, I think. Nephrite had a host of mounts." That was all he could really remember about that part, the jungle man hurriedly trying to supply him with whispered information without Nikolas making too many off-coloured jokes. They were mostly silent, those two, save for when he wanted to know something of them, or when they felt it absolutely necessary to step in and speak. There came another giggle still, his little girl patting her former pup on the top of the head and running up ahead of him.

"Come on, Azzuril. Remember Mai? She can growl just like you and Auntie Raen!" He let her take off, knowing this was a safe place, surrounded by equally safe people. Well, mostly. He cast a glance to the blonde that had 'stolen' his pet, momentarily worried for her in the night. He and Zoi were close enough (and he knew from the ones he'd seen around Jupiter from time to time) that he'd become well-acquainted with the Venusian condition. Night blindness, for most, just kept them indoors when they were visiting other places.

He caught a growl from the woman's Martian cohort, her hand thrown off as the brunette put space between the pair of them. He rolled his eyes, remembering Kei (it was hard not to when all Martians seemed to only have one of two responses to just about everything, and she picked the more aggressive ones) and resigning himself to the fact that, when she inevitably stomped off, he was going to have to escort his former charge's killer to their group up ahead.

The commander steeled himself, shoulders and jaw alike squared as he picked up the pace - only to be stopped short of his ultimate goal.

The growl faded, cut short as the shorter woman slowed her pace, likely trying to accommodate her wife's 'disability', as it were. "Come on." She leaned back towards her, the space she'd created in her initial... well, shock, he guessed it was, disappearing as Raen fumbled in the dark, fingers running down Amina's wrist as they felt their way towards actually holding her hand. Nier quirked a brow. He'd have to tell Maka - she'd be some combination of shocked and thrilled, he was pretty sure.

Him? Well, he cared, but didn't. Not his business, after all.