Dinner was quite limited since they didn't have many humans on board. It was also brought up to his quarters since neither of them really wanted to bother going down to the galley.
Add that to the fact that Ilio couldn't chew much at the moment because of his cut up mouth, so their options became even slimmer until they were left with what was now situated in front of a rather unhappy looking werewolf.
I can't blame you for making that face. I wouldn't want to touch that slop, either.
His pup also didn't look all that good now that he was actually looking him over.
Wait a second...
Reaching forward, he pressed his palm to Ilio's forehead, then scowled.
"When were you going to tell me that you were feeling sick again?" he asked, frustrated.
Ilio leaned against his hand as he gave out a quiet moan of exhaustion.
"My wolf was fine... but I don't think my human body works as well on a boat," he said as he moved his body slowly into a lying down position.
Inkani pondered his words as his hand drifted down to settle against Ilio's back, then start rubbing gently of its own accord.
Hmm...
"Ilio?"
He heard a little groan from the pup, but no other response afterward.
"Change back into your wolf form."
Ilio tilted his head enough to glance back at him with one eye, clearly on guard now.
"Don't give me that look. I'm not going to skin you. If your wolf does better, then just stay as your wolf more often," he said, annoyed that he even had to say it out loud.
Ilio slowly pushed himself back up into a sitting position, his expression a mixture of so many emotions that Inkani gave up on trying to read it.
"What?" he eventually asked, becoming frustrated again.
With a growing, nervous smile, Ilio leaned forward until the guy was nearly about to climb into his lap!
"You won't skin me?"
Inkani furrowed his brows, questioning anew, a werewolf's ability to understand English.
Leaning forward, himself, Inkani firmly grasped Ilio's jaw, though he made sure his fingers were no where near his stitches.
"I. Will. Not. Skin. You. Now transform or I'm going to make you sleep on the deck so that you don't vomit in my bed."
Ilio was a fluffy, giant wolf in the blink of an eye... and the look of pure delight on his fuzzy face made Inkani shove his jaw away with a roll of his eyes.
"Your coat looks like shit right now anyways. What good would that thing do me?" he grumbled as he tried to lie back down.
You son of a...
Straightening back up, Inkani turned and bared his fangs at the wolf that had situated itself behind him.
"I have plenty of pillows, dog," he ground out, earning a quiet whine as Ilio hesitantly moved out of his way.
Inkani was just about to lie down again when he noticed something that really made his blood boil.
"You!" he growled as he pointed a finger right at Ilio's wet nose.
"You shed like hell!"
As if to dump a boatload of salt onto his wounds, the huge wolf simply licked its muzzle, then tilted its head with a questioning stare.
This... this is unacceptable!
Storming out of bed, Inkani stomped over to one of his tall dressers and, after rummaging through it for a good bit, finally pulled out a shoddy looking hairbrush.
Turning back around, he stared at the giant panting beast as it watched him from the edge of his bed...shedding on everything!
"You, over here now," he said as he pulled over a small stool to sit on.
Ilio appeared before him a moment later, excited and wiggling a little as he danced on his big paws.
This dog...
He had half a mind to chain it up outside to the deck mast, but at the same time, he doubted that he'd be quiet, and he'd probably cause all sorts of trouble for his crew that needed to work around that area.
"Okay, listen up, punk. I'm going to brush you out and you're going to sit still and behave, got it?" he said with as much authority as he could muster.
Ilio's wolf flicked an ear, whined a little, then sat down obediently.
Okay, let's see what we're working with here.
Leaning forward, Inkani began his work... and nearly had a heart attack!
The brush was completely full of hair after just two simple strokes! Staring at the item in disbelief, he realized something he might have overlooked.
Fur coats, evidently, didn't shed nearly as much as their living owners!
I should just skin him. A coat is a coat, right?
As he began to rant within his mind, his hands got busy working through Ilio's extremely thick coat. He did the left side first, then the front and face. By the time he finished up the right side it was well into the night.
Leaning back with a groan, Inkani slowly stood up and stretched several different ways, feeling his back crack a bit with each direction he moved.
When he was finally a bit more comfortable, he looked down at a very sleepy pup. Ilio had honestly lied down a while ago, but he'd been receptive enough to moving whichever way he needed to that Inkani hadn't needed to prod him to stand back up.
"You know, you still haven't eaten yet, you oversized lug," he said as he stared at the wolf's back end... the last, and most fluffy portion of the animal's coat that he had yet to get to.
Ilio grunted and nudged his legs backwards until he looked like he had two turkey drumsticks sticking out on either side of his tail.
Sighing, Inkani considered their options, but quickly dismissed going down to the galley when he heard rain begin to pelt against the door.
After a few more moments, he walked over to the little nightstand beside his bed, then pulled out the top drawer.
He's not getting all of it, he told himself as he took out the bag of fresh pork jerky, then turned around... to a drooling wolf that was sitting right at his feet.
"You're only getting a few pieces. This is mine and it's not easy to come by recently," he said as he pulled out a thick piece of salted meat. It was much softer than the bag he'd previously had, and just the aroma was enough to make oneself drool.
Ilio's wolf eagerly opened and closed its mouth, as if already chewing on the delicacy. A few more globs of drool also dribbled down from its jowls and dripped onto the floor.
The moment the jerky gor without reach, Ilio jerked his head forward and inhaled the item, chewing for all of five seconds before swallowing and looking up again with a thump of his tail.
You...
"That's supposed to be savored! How could you eat it in five seconds?!"
This dog is so uncultured! And it sheds too much! And it—his mind lost track of its next insult as Ilio tilted his head again, then lulled his tongue out to the side to practically grin up at him.
All the happiness in the entire fucking world was in his soft, squinting eyes.
"You... you're only getting one more. And you better savor it this time, because you won't be getting another!" he said sternly as he picked out a smaller piece.
Much to his surprise or, honestly, not, that piece, too, vanished in a blur and was swallowed down. This time, however, it only took the beast three seconds to completely remove the treat from existence!
"..."
That's it. No more. You get not a single crumb ever again!
Until he slipped him one while he was cleaning up a bit about ten minutes later.
Then he gave him the end of a piece that had way too much seasoning on it.
The next few tidbits were rewarded after Ilio wiggled beneath his bed to fetch a few things he hadn't noticed had rolled beneath it during rough weather.
He then helped him nudge aside a particularly stubborn dresser, allowing him to clean behind it before helping to move it back.
By the time he finally dropped back down onto his bed and closed his eyes, the bag slipping from his hand to the floor was empty and his wolf was curled up against his side, snoring within two minutes flat.
Tilting his head on his pillow, Inkani stared down at the oversized dog snuggled up against him in the darkness. It was already fast asleep, as if it knew that the safest place in the world was right at his side.
A vampire's side.
A vampire pirate's side.
And not just a pirate, either. But one that hunted werewolves.
Shedding all over my bed again.
Scowling, he reached down and poked the giant pup's damp nose.
He got no response, but it still sated his frustration enough for him to relax a bit more.
Tch, not worth my time.
Settling in, he finally closed his eyes and began to relax. He knew that captain Moral was likely to find them again as soon as he decides what he wants to do about Ilio, but the pup had given them enough time to at least get some rest after having had to leave port so quickly after having just landed.
And then there was Karalius.
Sighing, he pushed away all of the thoughts that tried to weigh his mind down.
Rest. You need to rest or you'll be useless when you really have to fight either one of them.
He struggled to keep the thoughts away, however, and throughout the night he continued to roll from one side to the other until something firm wrapped around his waist. Another moment later and he felt something warm press against his back, further halting his ability to move.
A growl unconsciously slipped from his barely-parted lips, but after a few more moments he settled down as warmth quickly spread through his normally-chilled body.
Stupid... dog.
There was silence for some time after that thought, and just before he finally began to drift off, he thought he heard a quiet, whispered response of, "this stupid dog love you," but disregarded it as just another one of the random thoughts humming around his mind as he slipped off into a sound sleep.