The Lone Wolf (Iwaoi)

Chapter 16

Aone wasn't quite sure what to think of all this, he had mainly strolled along because Hinata and Nishinoya had been so insistant. What was he supposed to do again? Sniff out potential inhuman races?
Aone took a deep whiff of his surroundings and closed his eyes but all he smelled was the sweet scent of winged children, undeniably those two bouncy and short individuals left and right to him.

Students poured out of the buildings and scattered all across the area, mindless chatter filled the air around them and Aone enjoyed the different scents he was experiencing. Over there was a boy who had seemed to shower in aftershave, over there a girl who seemed to have dumped an entire bottle of parfume over herself. That group smelled like flowers and- was that over there homemade bento? Aone's tongue slipped absentmindly over his bottom lip as his thoughts wandered over to his dinner.
"Aone-san, let's go...!" Nishinoya smirked and grabbed Aone's hand to which the latter flinched, only to tag silently along into the school.
"Shiratorizawa is practising right now, which means, their locker room is entirely hours."

Hinata and Nishinoya made a great show of trying to sneak ninja-like towards the gym while Aone just followed behind, looming over everyone and everything in near like a misplaced lamp post. Hinata breathed out a quiet whine at the large man behind them.
"Can't you make yourself smaller...? You're too visible, Aone-san...!"
Aone blinked twice, then slowly slouched a bit to make himself smaller, soft eyes looking down at Hinata for approval. Said one eyed him another moment, then grinned and patted his back before moving after Nishinoya.

Standing inside the locker room with only one single accident (Hinata had ninja-rolled right into the sets of stairs leading up to their goal), the two winged children immediately split up and began to search the room for anything that could give away an inu in their rows, heck, even any else special child would have been a good catch. Hinata's breath hitched when he heard the soft squeak of one of the lockers opening; he turned and saw Nishinoya poking his head into one.
"N-Nishinoya-senpai! You can't just open up lockers! That's not nice!" Hinata hissed, nervously watching his senpai who shot an innocent grin back at him.
"I didn't open it. It went open all by itself. Oh- look Hinata, I can't control my hand...! What's it gonna do?"
Nishinoya guided his hand towards the next locker and Hinata let out something that sounded like a quiet screech, "Nishinoya-senpai! D-don't!"
"Oh dear, would you look at that, it opened all by itself~" Another locker was opened, and Aone was already busy sticking his nose into the first one, allowing himself a small whiff of each and every locker, closing his eyes to concentrate. He would grimace from time to time, old unwashed training clothes weren't exactly what he liked to smell.
"Nothing?!" Hinata wailed exasperatedly, "Was that all for nothing?!" Aone had to suppress wagging his tail at the view, this particular winged child was especially adorable to watch. It was only his luck that his charm protected his identity.

"Maybe we should go back to Karasuno and try to think of something different," Nishinoya suggested, sprawling out on one of the large benches spread in the middle of the room.
"Aw man... that plan was such a good one!" Hinata looked honestly disappointed. They had broken into Shiratorizawa's locker room for nothing- Hinata was still in the process of convincing himself that they had not trespassed since nothing had been locked.
Aone didn't quite know what to do to cheer his company up, he just stood there awkwardly, invisible ears and tail hanging guiltily down. Even if it wasn't his fault they hadn't found anything, he would have been delighted to see Hinata more cheerful than usual.

That was until a scent stuck in his nostrils. Aone's ears perked up; his head turned. Where was that scent coming from? Spicy, territorial, overpowering. He knew this scent all too well, it was the scent of an inu who had claimed their territory. His tail went wild; Aone followed the smell and finally crouched down next to Nishinoya who was still sprawled out all over the bench.
"Aone-san? Did you find anything?!" Hinata beamed and Aone finally pulled out from below the bench a pair of shoes. He stuck his nose into one of them, only to pull away with a disgusted woof of surprise at the strong smell coming from them. Gross. Those shoes needed a good portion of air, his nose had decided.

"Inu," was all Aone had to say before Nishinoya and Hinata erupted into loud cheers; the latter bouncing around like a ball to get rid of his energy. Yet a sudden thought forced them to pause.
"Wait. Whose shoes are they?!"
Nishinoya frowned and checked the lockers left and right of the place the shoes had been in near of yet to no avail, each had their own set of uniform shoes.
"Are you kidding me?! We found an inu but have no idea who it is?!"
Aone shrugged, eyes wandering down to the pair of shoes he was still holding. He didn't quite know what to do now. Nishinoya suddenly slammed his fist into the locker next to him, announcing his next plan.
"I got it! We'll take the shoes and hide outside, whoever turns out to complain about missing shoes is the inu!"
"Aaaaa I'm so excited! What do you think?! Who could it be?! The inu?!"

Lost in their own musings and theories, the two winged children stalked outside and hid around a nearby corner while Aone had no other choice but to follow along. Was he even needed here, now that they knew someone of the opposite team was an inu? Obviously, because Hinata had a soft grip on his sleeve as they crouched down at the wall.
The inu breathed out a soft sigh and scratched his fluffy ears, looking up into the sun. He wasn't exactly fond about sitting the entire leftover afternoon out for them to come back into the room from their training, but what else could he have possibly done than just go with the flow.