[ti]Private[/ti]Big Brother Is Watching You

[Fireflake]

Vulture the Rogue

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Vulture prowled through the streets dappled with shadow as dusk rapidly closed in on the world. His pawsteps were light and methodical yet practically automatic, his attention elsewhere. Sharp blue eyes searched the distant dark patches. Nothing. Nothing there. The tom threw a glance back to his little sister Chocolette. She wasn't as little now.

The rogue flicked his tail and turned away again. Choc, as he had taken to calling her, wasn't going to be a kit for much longer. He didn't need to watch her all the time. He didn't need to be scouring back alleys for prey either, but both of these things gave him a chance to forge some connection with the smaller she-cat. Family seemed to be rapidly falling away these days. Best to keep the ones he could under his claws.

"Choc!" Vulture beckoned, flicking his tail toward himself as he stalked deeper into the streets. The call might well have been mistaken for a sneeze to one unfamiliar with it. It was, indeed, to a mouse that hid in the cover of a building up ahead. It shuffled but didn't feel any urgent need to run. As he drew closer, the rogue paused. The shadows contrasted more sharply at this point, where the streetlights were already spilling out their yellow glow. His eyes took a moment to adjust and the disheveled tom let the hunting responsibility briefly fall to Chocolette. "Anything around?" he demanded expectantly.

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[mewmehh]

The thick pelt of the brown she-cat shifted and gave a soft fwuf a she padded after her pale brother, her chocolatey eyes peeled and beaming as she scanned the alley. She was used to Vulture's awkward sense of closeness as her kinmate, from sharing meals to sharing words between herself, him, and their other brother, Buzzard. It seemed they were the only three who carried about kin; at least, she figured that was the case. After all, they had so much to do- would they have spent time with her otherwise?

Anyways, it wasn't often that she go to out and about with one of them for anything more than as a tag along, and now Vulture had actually addressed her. What did he say? She scrambled to recall his brief order before gasping and crouching low, her downy belly fur brushing the concrete. She tasted the air and a cheeky grin curl onto her face. Glancing to the siamese tom, she mewed in a low, careful voice,"That's a mouse, right? Or rat? Something like that, right?" She felt the warmth of excitement bubble up within her throat though she stifled the urge to rumble the loud purr she always uttered when delighted with a successful prank; it was a sound her brother Buzzard absolutely hated.

Snapping her brown eyes back to where Vulture's icy eyes were focused, Chocolette bunched up her muscles, winding up like a spring. Her fluffy, dark tail wiggled ever so slightly and her claws sank into the crumbly pebbles of the ground as she laid in wait.

[Fireflake]

Vulture the Rogue

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Vulture offered no confirmation beyond a shallow nod, though the harsh look directing his eyes and posture softened a whisker's breadth as he took in Chocolette's excitement. This reduced harshness didn't last long. He slunk into a crouch beside his sister and bunched his muscles, studying her from an almost-level position. He was still bigger than her, of course. Still above her. The tom's hunched form blocked half of the light and cast a thin shadow over her.

"Get your hind down. Tail out. And stop swishing it like that," he commanded quietly. He wasn't sure if it really was swishing or if it was a trick of the light, but relied on her not speaking up and possibly ruining the hunt. Beady black eyes watched the two cats now, nervously still in hopes to go unnoticed. "You're going to catch it. Without killing."

Vulture shifted his weight and brushed one of his front paws against the rough gravel as he took a slow step toward the building. Repeating the motion, he looked pointedly at Choc. "You know how to pounce," he muttered. It was halfway to a question, but carried the air of an order. His sky-blue eyes were fixed on the young she-cat now as the sky itself hung overhead with a dingy greyish colour. Vulture flicked his tail-tip sharply to the rodent.

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