[C] The old Master

Tuzik was running about outside.

Coilean had stayed the night and was still over, sitting with Alyosha in the library.

He had too much energy this morning and the other men were enjoying a relaxing day inside so he was trying to tire himself out, it was too hard to sit still at the moment.

He barreled across the lawn happily before a scent caught his nose, he knew that scent all too well.

Excitement flared through him as he quickly stripped off his clothes and shifted into his hound form, he knew how this particular person felt about hounds in their human forms.

His pitch black paws hit against the ground as he ran toward the pool, his loud bark echoing throughout the area.

Tuzik skidded to a halt as he reached the stone ground, his bright crimson eyes landing on the long haired man.

Lucifer was hovering in the middle of the pool, just above the water's surface. His long hair was held back in a loose ponytail and sprawled over the water.

Swimming around him excitedly was a handful of puppies, yapping and play fighting, trying to dunk each other under the water.

Lucifer, his mind far away from him, barely registered the loud bark.

Tuzik never forgot the scents of any of his Masters, and even after all these years he could still recall the smell of his first.

His gazed flicked from Lucifer's form, down to the small balls of fluff yapping and splashing in the water below him.

The hound gave a small whine as he moved to the waters edge.

He lay down, extending himself as far as he could to try and sniff at the pups without actually entering the water and disturbing them.

Even as far away as he was, Lucifer recognised a possible threat to the puppies and blinked back to life, his body tensing up and a warning growl (low and animalistic) sounded from him.

As cold and uncaring as he could be at times, animals only ever got his love and respect. These puppies were young and innocent; they got the best of Lucifer's protective personality.

His growling cut short, though, when he recognised the threat.

Like Tuzik, he had a long memory and remembered every Hound he'd ever owned. This one included.

Lucifer tipped his head to the side, just watching the Hound. If he made one threatening move towards the puppy that was splashing its way towards the larger Hound to sniff him in interest, Lucifer was going to be beyond pissed off.

Tuzik looked up as he was growled at, his head lowering as he gave a low rumbling growl of his own as his ears flicked back.

He was simply acknowledging Lucifer as a threat and addressing his warning.

His gaze turned from the man as a small pup paddled it's way over to him.

He tried to lean in to sniff at it but he couldn't lick at the small creature without dunking it under the water.

His gaze flicked back to Lucifer, then to the pup.

Tuzik's body shifted until he was knelt there, naked, the sprawling marking across his chest identifying him as one of Lucifer's pups.

Reaching out he picked up the pup gently and pulled it out of the water, his finger tips stroking over its black fur softly, in awe of the tiny creature.

Lucifer watched the Hound carefully. A brow quirked upwards when the Hound shifted but he didn't say anything as he pulled the pup out of the water.

He did, however, make a comment when the Hound just looked down at the puppy like it was the best thing since sliced bread.

"You've seen pups before."

All his Hounds had been around puppies constantly. It was something that did his Hounds well. They learned to be protective. Something that was only good when they beccame guard dogs.

Tuzik nodded at that statement.

"Yes," He replied, his voice gruff. He had seen pups before, he had litters of his own.

It had been a very long time though, a very long time.

He sat back on his feet and pet the small creature, hugging it to his chest as he looked down at it.

A small smile graced his lips, he couldn't have puppies anymore, he knew well enough that Coilean wasn't a female.

His eyes widened then narrowed as Tuzik spoke.

That was something he'd never really allowed his Hounds to do. Learning to speak meant that you could learn to speak back. Not something that he'd ever allowed.

His disgust was interrupted as a pup tangled in his hair and yanked him backwards. He dropped into the pool with a splash and surfaced a moment later with a struggling puppy in his arms, attempting to detangle it from his long, wet hair.

Tuzik went wide eyed as Lucifer fell into the pool, onto the pups that were swimming around him.

He set the pup he held onto the edge of the pool and jumped into the water, driving to Lucifer's side in a matter of seconds.

The use of his human hands was getting better with everyday and he reacted over to help detangle the struggling pup before grabbing any of them that had been knocked around when Lucifer fell.

He was protective of them and checked to see if any had been injured.

When he was sure they were fine he looked up at Lucifer with worry in his eyes.

It had slipped his mind how Lucifer would feel about how he had acted.

Lucifer was shocked the the Hound had reacted instantly with a need to protect and check the pups.

He trained all his Hounds to think of pups first, but that usually faded away when extended time away from him and his training. Tuzik hadn't been with him for many hundreds of years.

"You've forgotton many of my rules, but I'm pleased you at least remembered that one," was all he said as he swam towards the edge of the pool.

Tuzik helped by carrying the rest of the pups to the edge of the pool and setting them on the ground.

He hoisted himself out and shifted back, shaking out his fur and laying on the ground among the small balls of fur.

At the very least the man wasn't scolding him, he had half expected to be dragged back to hell by that expression on Lucifer's face.

Lucifer squeezed the majority of the water out of his long hair. He could help the grin on his face as one pup decided that he wanted to attack the line of water dripping from his hair to a puddle on the floor. The pups little jaws snapped around the water again and again as he bounced around and barked.

Playful puppies really did brighten his day, though he rarely outwardly condoned their plyafulness.

He shook his head as his gaze settled on Tuzik. "You are far bigger than the pups."

Tuzik was a large hound, being next to the pups just made him feel bigger than ever.

He gave an amused huff as he lifted his large paw and placed it onto one of the pup's tails.

It yapped and nipped at his paw trying to get itself free as it wiggled about on it's backside.

"You've gotten playful." His voice wasn't quite disapproving, but it wasn't a positive comment, either.

LLucifer didn't know how he felt about it.

But as he watched the puppies all begin to pouncce on the larger Hound, he felt a strange emotion bloom.

It was a nice sight. One that he hadn't seen before.

Tuzik gave a pleased whine as the pups pounced on him.

He played with each one, picking them up by their scruffs, nudging them over with his nose or licking at them until they squirmed away.

Tuzik adored pups, more than he remembered, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed that Coilean and himself couldn't have any.

Still, the man was worth giving this up.

Lucifer leant back against the tree just behind him, just watching the scene.

He'd never seen an adult actually play with pups like this. He'd have said that the Hound was soft, if he didn't know personally that he was a fierce, dangerous creature. He wouldn't be anything else while sporting his marks.

One pup, the runt of the litter (the one Deme seemed to have a soft spot for) hung back, only pouncing at the larger Hound occasionally, before she pulled away completely and curled up at Lucifer's feet, watching the group.

Tuzik played with them happily, his attention being drawn to a small pup, almost half the size of the rest of the litter, it's fur puffing out in all directions, sitting by Lucifer's feet.

A runt?

He had never seen Lucifer with a runt before, he'd always kill them off. He had seen the man kill more runts then he could count.

He got to his feet and padded over carefully, leaning down he sniffed the tiny thing, looking up at Lucifer for a moment.

He had always felt bad for them, it wasn't their fault that they were small but at the same time, they would have only ended up being torn apart. I was more humane to kill them before they something else down there got to them first.

So why was this one alive?

His eyes flicked back down to the runt, lapping his tongue over it's small cheek.

As the large Hound approached, the runt rolled onto her back. Her fluffy body writhed as he sniffed at her and she yapped with a surprisingly loud voice when she was licked by a tongue almost as big as she was.

Lucifer nudged her away from him with his foot.

It was clear that there was little love for the pup. His opinion on runts had barely changed in the years ince Tuz had been his pet.

She yapped again, rolling over to playfully attack Lucifer's foot. The Fallen just frowned down at her.

Tuzik gave a soft chuff, he was curious, it was obvious that Lucifer didn't like this puppy, so why did he have it.

His Master's intentions were unclear.

Tuzik leaned over and very carefully picked up the small pup before laying down again, setting it between his front paw and nuzzling against her.

He'd try to stop her from annoying Lucifer, to be honest, he didn't want to see another pup's life ended, not here.

Lucifer didn't know if he'd be able to answer that question if he was asked.

Why did he have the fluffy little nuisance?

She was already almost a year old now. A year older than every other runt that had ever been bought to him.

She settled between Tuzik's large paws, contently to lay on one large paw and chew at his pitch black fur in hopes of finding skin eventually.

Tuzik just let her chew, if she was content then he would let her be, she wasn't hurting him at all.

Leaning down his tongue lapped out over her fur, the long tufts were getting mattered so he resided himself to grooming her since she was staying still for the moment.

Perhaps times had changed in the time since he was Lucifer, but he couldn't see why they would.

She writhed as she was groomed, obviously not used to and not enjoying the attention.

She huffed and barked and growled as she wriggled violently under the large Hound's tongue.

The fight in the pup drew a tiny smile to Lucifer's lips. Seeing any form of normal behaviour in the tiny creature was more than he expected.

Tuzik gave and amused huff as she fussed and protested, using his nose to knock her onto her back so he could clean her stomach.

His large tongue cleaned up her wet fur in just a few swipes before letting her up.

She could fuss all she wanted, she had needed a bath, mattered fur could cause a lot of problems for a growing pup.

She looked very harrassed when she was finally released.

She huffed loudly at Tuzik, growling and barking.

Pretty soon, she was back to pouncing on and attacking his paw in an act of revenge.

Her sharp little teeth sank through layers of fur until they finally scraped skin.

Puppy teeth were like little needles, they pricked at you.

When she managed to get through his fur he lifted his paw to a height that she could not reach,

His mouth spreading into an amused grin as he denied her revenge.