"No Life 'Til Leather"

Two morons sat on a bench. Andy could only wish it was the beginning of a shitty joke.

"Can you stop doing that?" W asked, though her voice didn't quite paint a picture of annoyance, more of boredom. "Hella irritating."

"Doing what?" He retorted, seeking his fault, yet coming up blank. The two had their legs joined by the thighs, arms crossed and politely awaiting an order. Or someone to come in and flood the empty training hall with life. At that moment, the room seemed more like an unfinished storage unit than anything else, with the lights barely working and an entire area left unpainted, glaring with its waves of cold metal spilling from behind patches of haphazardly applied paint. Maybe that's one of the reasons why his knee kept jumping up and down on its own, burnt from beneath by embers of nervousness.

"That. This, exactly this." She said, then slapped his leg in a clear display of violent displeasure. "What're you even so worried about?"

"I'm not worried, just hate waiting."

"You're that impatient for me to kick your ass? Really?" She chuckled. "It's kind of sweet, really. You little masochist, you."

"What do you mean "kick my ass?" Andy flicked her hand off his thigh, then shot her a look. "We're supposed to be training here, not–"

"And how do you think they're gonna train us? Put us up against one another, let us brawl it out, most likely. You know, like fighting hounds. See who comes out on top, throw the other down a garbage chute." She shrugged. "... That's what I'd do, anyway. They should really put me in charge, now that I think about it."

"They're not putting us up against anything, anywhere." Andy shoved her away from himself, only for W to return like a slung yo-yo, gluing their shoulders back together. "The only thing I'm putting up with is you, dumbass. ... And barely." He added, after a split second of hesitation.

"Likewise." She sighed, then softly slung her head onto his shoulder. Andy followed suit after a moment of silent grumbling, burying his horn into the fluff of her hair, then slowly blew a raspberry. W sensed the encumbering air of boredom tying its veil over them both, and grabbed the angel's tail to entertain herself. "... Lawdog?"

"Mmm?"

"Y'know that this is just temporary, right? All this, it's passing."

"What?" He glanced down at her face, obstructed by a waterfall of messy hair, unsure of what she meant.

"Yeah. Hedley was talking to those creeps in charge, signed a week-long lease on our asses. Not exactly the holiday you were expecting, I bet."

Just one week? Working professionally for once, for once with a bed and a whole bunch of paperwork to fall back on, and it would only last a week? Andy blinked at the revelation, unsure of how he felt. Like an adopted puppy, posed with the prospect of being returned back into a cold, shapeless cage after a short playtime with a potential new owner, at their potential new house. Then again, the cage seemed more familiar than the house. Solidified and dry in his memory, unlike the house, still dripping wet with paint.

"So it's just that? Useless training with that Victorian twat, then we're saying goodbye to Her Majesty's operation and going back to sleeping in the mud?"

"Yup." She hummed, while carefully sieving the tip of his tail through her fingers, rubbing and tracing the leathery flaps. The worm squirmed in pleasure, wriggling eagerly further into her lap, which W didn't even seem to notice. "... What, disappointed?"

"I mean... yeah? It feels normal here."

"It's not normal, it's boring." She murmured. "Lock a sled-hound in a warm, stable home with a loving family by its side, and it's gonna tear their throats to pieces within a month. Hell, a week, even. All that pent up energy, and no way to relieve it is a recipe for a very gory disaster. It's... it's suffocating. Some people just aren't meant to be cooped up in places like these."