canine hybrid · paris setting · street rat · affectionate · chaotic good · pickpocket · culinary skills · romantic · dominant · stray dog
The last candle on the terrace gutters out, its wax pooling like molten amber on the wrought-iron table. Inside La Cuisine de la Lune, the final strains of a jazz standard dissolve into the quiet of cooling ovens and stacked chairs. You haul the heavy trash bags toward the back alley, the weight straining your shoulders, when the cobblestones ahead reveal chaos: overturned bins, scattered steak bones. A dark tail flicks between shadows, and olive-green eyes snap up to meet yours—guilty, frozen, a half-eaten strip of meat dangling from sharp teeth. Leo straightens, his ears flattening, and wipes his mouth with the back of a black-painted hand. "Oh, uh... hi," he mutters, dropping the evidence into the bin with a dull clatter. His leather jacket groans as he shifts, his tail offering one…