Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was 4:00am, far too early for anyone to be awake.

Yet, here I am.

I sat at the edge of my car's hood, the old Cadillac Coup Deville still outshining the other antique cars with its black sheen and silver designs up front.

The smell of rats scurrying in the alleyway and the bustling subway station drilled into my ears, it was annoying.

The main city has always been a pleasure to its sights, unless you're in the slums which I am in currently. I was supposed to meet with some new clientele, offering a high sum of money.

Apparently, his son had been kidnapped and there had been a ransom sent to him via letter paired with a horrifying photo of the child, a gun raised to his head with the words that read below the polaroid: 

1,000,000 TIX, GIVE THE MONEY AT THE SUNDOWN NEAR THE PORT AT 6PM.

Now I'm not sure what kind of idiot decides to kidnap a child, I've got my own rules and back then when I did ransom children were never part of the list. It is downright ugly.

But I'm not a mafia boss anymore, I left that life behind.

And replaced it with an even more worse life. I'm currently working for a client by commision as their private investigator under the name of my agency that helps with collecting information, it isn't so far off with what I used to do, aside from the fact that now I have fewer men who work under me, most of them ran off leaving me behind in disgust that I'd let down the family name. To be honest I didn't want to be in the mafia, it was forced upon me.

It's even more harder to deal with if you were a prey in this dog eat dog world. 

My father- god bless his soul, was a nice man, gave me a lot of inheritance and a sizable land, by sizable land I mean it's a whole estate, with a farm and garden attached to it, I still drop by my estate every now and then but it hurts to look at the horses I used to ride. Those same horses were used in gambling, horse racing, I stopped it though I felt bad for the old runners they needed to retire and I had to buy out new ones.

Despite all that love and care, he couldn't outweigh the elephant in the room, my mother was a dwarf rabbit, he, a predator. A hybrid was what's supposed to come out of her womb and instead came out me.

A Rabbit.

Now you may ask, what's so wrong being a prey? Idiot this was taught in biology class, there's a food chain and I'm at the bottom tier of it, pathetic honestly.

But I hid myself well, under the brim of my fedora and the long trench coat, they all thought I was a normal human being. Humans are a rare species in this world, being far more intelligent than the latter, they're seen as superior, better, stronger even. I've deluded everyone into believing what was born from my mother was not some lowly animal but a homo sapien.

A pair of head lights came down the road brightening the gloomy alleyway. I still sat on the hood of my car languidly. Someone lanky got out of the car, a man of medium height, thick square glasses and a long tail swishing around indicative of panic. I can't tell what breed he is but he most certainly is a feline, a siamese cat.

It's my employer now that I got a closer look, what's he doing in the same alleyway as me? He hired me to do the searching not the other way around.

If he snoops around in this neighborhood he'd be in big trouble.

"Hey" I call out to him, tone harsh, he knows me by now so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for him to know me by my voice.

"Don Sonnellino?" The man turns around, confused. "I thought you were-"

"I was. I'm working. Until you showed up. You shouldn't be in this area you don't know the kind of stray cross-breeds you would see"

"I know, I know- I just thought maybe coming back here..."

"Blind hope perhaps? you do know your son is kidnapped" I told him straight-up, no dilly dallying or sweet words to calm him.

"I'm a worried parent, can I not be worried?"

"Listen here 007n7" I rose from where I sat on the hood of my car, taking out my cigarette case as I searched around for my lighter in my back pocket. "You hired me to find your son, I'm finding him in due time"

I took a cigarette from the case I held in my hand, and in the other I took out my lighter, lighting up the alleyway with a small fire as I lit my cigarette. Smoke escaped my mouth as I blew it up into the dark morning air, it tasted metallic somehow, like radiation lingering.

"So trust me when I say I can find him, don't meddle in with my buisness"

He took one glance at me, I can see the nerves on his hands lessen. "Alright...thank you, for taking this up"

"No problem"

I found another pair of headlights coming down my way, I followed where it went to turning around a corner away from me and my client. That was the time for me to pull out my handheld radio to contact my goons. I didn't like calling them that anymore but those immature little rascals thought it was "cool". I on the other hand do not find it like that, after all who would want to be called like that in this day and age? felt like being a slave, and that has been a controversial topic these last few years with the animal domestication act being abolished across multiple sectors.

Humans have stopped looking down on animals as pets, they now view them as intelligent beings like they are, took them a couple of decades before realizing that truth despite countless research and studies have taken up.

"Go home now 007n7, I have some business to tend to" I hurriedly put out my lit cigarette stomping on it as I contacted my goons, entering my car as I turned on the ignition.

On the other end of the line I could hear my employees arguing before one of them spoke up louder than the rest. "We got your signal boss, following you!"

"Block the car at all sides, don't let them have a escape route" I was about to end the call before my client ran up to my open window.

"I- Sonnellino?" The feline man came up to me, talking to me before I drove off. "Thank you"

I took his gratitude in stride, somehow some innate part of me liked being thanked, maybe that's just my animal genes kicking in liking the praise. The ears hidden under my hat twitching and my tail thumping lightly.

How shameful.

"Like I said, no problem at all" And I put my hands on the wheel, foot on the pedal, driving off without a second glance as I chased after the car.

Thankfully the roads aren't too crowded, compared to 8:00am morning traffic I have to experience when I wake up everyday to go to work. Even worse if you have to take the bus or the train, packs of different species crammed together, different scents, predator and prey aren't even segregated. That's another act they abolished and that's the segregation of species act, so many things changed after I stepped down from the mafia family and I wonder how the hierarchy works now within crime syndicates. I still pull out information every now and then checking in on my family despite the impromptu exile, I care for them like how my father cared for me.

Winds whipped against my stray hair underneath my fedora as I raced against the car, the engines in my own car sounding more and more like those nascar engines you'd hear whenever they pass by the camera running around a lap.

I felt my hat coming off my head and I swore underneath my breath grabbing hold of it as I focused on the road tailing the car.

"You ain't getting out of my sight tonight" I said to myself as I swerved in a corner, I could see other cars swarming around the one I'm tailing and already I knew victory would be within my reach.

The car sharply turned going down under a bridge, the large underground sewage pipes leading to empty canals. Maybe the driver wished it would stop me from following them but unfortunately-

I knew a shortcut.

Knowing my way around the city's underground passageway as a young mischievous child. I stopped on top of the bridge then turned around from where I came heading towards the docking port where most of the large sewage pipes lead out to, I knew whoever was driving the car would end up on the rocky beaches where me and my siblings used to play on vacation, sad fact is that they might dent the front portion of their car if they come out that way on their 5th gear.

Reaching the docks I looked over to my rear view mirror seeing my goons coming up in their own cars, taking my hand-held radio, I said to them. "Car is going to exit via the sewage pipes on the rocky beaches, don't let them escape through the docks" 

I ended my sentence not explaining further as I shifted my gear to 4th then, I swerved going downhill to the docks. I hated the slippery slope of the tilted plane, evident that there's a lack of funding than went to building the docks, I ought to have a good word with the structural engineer who built the port.

I put my hand on the brakes, car stopping as I exited my car slamming the door shut, running down to the rocky beaches and there I caught sight of whoever driving the car.

I nearly laughed seeing the specie that came out of the car, all this time I was chasing a wild cat- and a chicken?

Now that part confused me because I thought I was chasing only one person.

Certain species of birds are more common than not but some stood the last of their kind. You can never hide yourself if you were a bird in this world, that's what I'm thankful for, lest I have to chop off my wings and my tail if I were a bird. Only problem left would be my feet, now that I don't know how to manage to hide.

Since I already identified the people who came out of the car, I produced a small camera from my breast pocket, I took a picture mindful of the flash as I hid behind a few rocks. Despite being afar I could hear their conversation, the ears underneath my hat still sensitive to noise even though it was hidden.

"Did we lose them?" The man spoke up, bearing features of a chicken, the white feathers that lined his neck and the razor sharp talons on his fingers. "God that scared me-"

"This is why we shouldn't be meeting anymore, you're a magnet for trouble" The other replies, annoyed, I could not make out what kind of wild cat he is, the breed rather, still it's better to take photos now and view them later.

"A magnet for trouble? says the one with a stack of criminal charges on his profile"

"Hey, I'm only doing this because there's money on it, and we all know Mr. hard-hat up top doesn't want his hands dirty" He then mumbles the last words out. "Despite his job being dirty already"

"Okay, okay, you got the kid though right?"

"I still think this is fucked up, kidnapping a child so you could lure out a parent your boss's brother has grudges on" The wild cat, now stepping out more under the lamppost, arms crossed, showed his stark white fur, and solid dark eyes, but the malnourished state is concerning, you could see his ribs sticking out and the gaunt features. Must be a White Serval breed only that he doesn't sport the iconic greyish spots that would trail down most White Serval animal hybrids down their legs or arms.

"I don't want to question his business alright? all I know is his brother got his establishment burnt down multiple times and he wants to hold the person accountable"

"That stupid pizza place? seriously?"

"Oh how dare you I like that pizza place, I like the all-meat variety"

"Of course you like meat, with how you're sucking up to that boss of yours, you gobble him up like-" He...he made inappropriate gestures with his hands I wouldn't like to remember.

"What- what the fuck no!" The other man exclaimed, offended, of course who wouldn't be when your companion is making mocking gestures suggesting you're sucking off your boss.

"Seems like it"

"Listen, you're here for the money I'm here for a raise, and a bonus of course"

"Bonus? I'm sure that bonus comes from the tip of his-" and he was about to point down to his pants when the chicken hybrid hit him in the shoulder earning him a pained groan. "Alright, alright I'll shut up, you've got one strong knuckle there"

"Is the kid...is the kid fine?"

"Yeah, he is, but babysitting him was definitely not on my paycheck, still...this is wrong in so many levels"

"It's fine, boss will pay for the damages, if he ever did anything to your apartment" They both went near the back row seat of the car opening the door, and there I found the child who was being ransomed.

I didn't hesitate to move, my feet carried me, I ran across the rocks of the beach, swift as the wind.

I know I should be wary of the man with chicken feathers, he could hit hard, and so-

My fist came to the back of his hair and I hit his face on the roof of the car, that surprised the other man, he bared his teeth at me hissing as he prepared to get into a fight with me. His fellow is knocked out on the ground already, probably eating sand in his dreams. I turned to him and I kicked him in the crotch before sucker-punching him.

The feline fell to the rocks grunting as he clutched at the door. "Who- who are you?"

"I don't think asking questions would made this any better" I quickly grabbed the child from the back seat, I carried him on my shoulder as I looked down on both of them. "Tell your boss a lawsuit is coming for him, kidnapping and ransom? hope his buisness doesn't topple down"

I ran off immediately heading towards my car, placing the child in the back seat as I entered the driver seat turning the key to power the engines of my car, throttling to life. I was about to pull out of the docks when that same person I knocked out earlier ran in front of my car hoping to stop me.

Instead, I ran through him, like he was a mere ant and I could hear a pained yelp come from the chicken hybrid as he was toppled down.

I put a seat belt over the child for good measure and I fixed my rearview mirror.

Child? secured.