It's Cold Outside {Tagged}

[Rykett]

(This thread takes place last winter.)

Despite Blaise’s insistence on making the journey back to Secluded Sunrise, she’d been outvoted. the group found the nearest cave and settled inside. As the sun finished its descent beneath the horizon, both Kanga and Manaaki were asleep and Amora seemed to be dozing. Blaise huddled in a corner. She couldn’t sleep and not just because of the the cold sinking into her bones. This was the cave. Here, she had fallen for Scorpius. Here, she and had Scorpius had decided to have pups. They’d promised to spend their life together, exploring the world. Blaise hated this place. She didn’t want to look around or remind herself of the memories this little hollow.

Her thick winter fur was slow to dry and Blaise couldn’t stop the shivering that refused to be ignored. She clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering. She hoped none of her companions noticed her chill. She could handle it and 50% of the wolves in the cave reminded her of Scorpius in some way.

Fierfly

[Fierfly]

Epsilon:

He couldn’t sleep. Why was he always like this? Maybe this was why he was so languid and sloppy, he didn’t sleep at night, not well anyway. He rolled over, swinging his paw in the nick of time to avoid Kanga’s snoring snout. He had never had this problem as a cub - well...that was a lie. He had struggled staying asleep that first spring, maybe this was too much like it. But no, he hadn’t been sleeping well since he’d joined the pack! It couldn’t have been just because of today. Maybe he was just turning into an insomniac - for no specific reason, just...drifting. Or maybe he was just cold tonight, his fur was still slightly damp here and there - it had taken fifteen solid minutes of shaking and freezing the droplets in his coat and rattling them off, but it had mostly worked, he could still feel some hiding in his belly fur and in his chest fluff, but they would dry eventually.

An ear twisted idly and he raised his head and moved his weight to his shoulder and hips as he sat up. Amora was curled protectively around her newly-exposed stub and slumbering peacefully, but...it wasn’t quite snuffling, he quietly stood and tip-toed over. There, on the other side of Amora, Blaise was still shivering. It was no wonder, her fur was very thick and sleek, it was probably holding the water in. She’d looked so small when he’d pulled her up to the surface, so vulnerable…

Her amethyst eyes glinted as they rolled and took him in. “Alphess Blaise,” he whispered, and gently stepped over her and settled his touseled bulk next to hers, stretching his body out straight, head going to his paws, then shifting his head around, just shy of Blaise’s paws. “You’re cold, you...it - it wouldn’t do if you got pneumonia. You need to keep warm,” he shifted his brush. This was terribly forward, but he was still awake and she needed kept warm, she was going to catch cold and be ill, and he’d had enough of a scare that day as it was.

[Rykett]

Blaise raised her head as the tick-tacking of claws against stone disturbed her. Epsilon was carefully stepping around the resting bodies of their companions. She watched him with one open purple eye. Was he coming over to her? Yes… yes he was. He greeting her with an ”Alphess Blaise.” Without requesting permission, Epsilon slipped down beside her. With an annoyed huff, Blaise shifted away, but the wall of stone blocked her from sidling away from him. ”What are you doing, Epsilon?”

His soft, smooth voice responded. Epsilon was right. A sick Alphess wouldn’t be very effective. Still, she didn’t want him of all wolves helping her warm up. Why did he keep trying to save her? Granted, she needed to survive, but she’d prefer to be able to safe herself. Blaise pinned herself against the stone. ”I’ll be fine.”

Maybe she could use a spark to warm herself up? Would it be too dangerous to reach for that power?

[Fierfly]

Epsilon:

Blaise scooted away, pinning her slender form against the stone wall, only creating an inch or two of separation between the two and with his long winter shag, the tips of his fur still brushed her coat. She did not - wait, what had he done this time?? Did she not want him to help? Did she prefer to be cold? If she wanted, he could freeze the remaining water in her coat - would that be chill enough for her? ”I’m sorry, I did not realize I had to ask permission to do the job you gave me,” the words hissed out meaner than he intended, and his lips curled back against his will. He sighed and lowered them. ”I apologize, that was out of line.” he lifted his head and turned to her. She looked miserable over there, still cold, but more iritated than anything. ”Blaise, please, you need to keep warm, your health is not negotiable; now come closer.”

Her vulpine-skull was tucked comfortably with her forepaws and the amethyst glinted spitefully. He lifted his lip again and had to look away. He had not realized before how stubborn she could be - well, he could be stubborn too. He was much bigger and much heavier than she was, she could not push him away, she had no more room to scoot away and if she so wished to step over him...well, he’d follow her, that was all. She needed to keep warm, that was that.

[Rykett]

At his first words, Blaise flinched slightly as an image of Scorpius’s loving face twisted into an evil snarl as he revealed his true purpose flashed through her mind. Her ear pinned and teeth peeped out from under her lip as her fur bristled. How dare he remind her?! How dare he speak that way to her? Blaise was an alphess! She wasn’t the same wolf that Sporpius had enchanted into foolishness. She knew better and she knew that Epsilon had no right to sass her. Blaise was preparing to snap at him when Epsilon realized his error and apologized. Blaise had half a mind to bite him, anyways, but she huffed a soft growl instead and looked away. She scooted into the wall, almost climbing up it in her attempt to stay away from Epsilon.

There was nowhere to go and Epsilon’s soft voice spoke beside her, pleading with her to accept his help. No! She wouldn’t give in! She wouldn’t repeat anything! Blaise squeezed her eyes shut. She could almost see ghosts of Scorpius and her huddling together in the darkness. His bulk warming her slender, soaked form after he’d rescued her from dark depths. His voice promising sweet words of a beautiful life. Her eyes snapped open and she glanced at Epsilon. Why did such a burning part of her wish she could find the courage to slide over next to him? But she refused. She had to refuse. It was a trap.

’But…’ she reasoned, ’He’s right…’

’I might freeze without him. My fur dries so slowly and I feel chilled to the bone. I can’t warm myself up… I need him… My pack needs me and I need him. My pack needs me to need him,’ it was solid reasoning to Blaise. So with a clumsy push and soft huff of "Fine", she gave in, settled beside Epsilon. Blaise felt like melting into him and burying her face in his only slightly damp, but warm fur. But, once more, she refused herself that pleasure. This was solely business. This was for her pack. This wasn’t for herself or for Epsilon.

[Fierfly]

Epsilon:

Her ears flattened and her own lips lifted to reveal the slender dagger-canine teeth. She did not take kindly to his tone of voice and her ruff began to bristle. She was his superior, he backed down first and as she took in his apology, she huffed and gradually re-sheathed her teeth, though she was still agitated and she only tried to press herself closer to the wall.

He wiggled away an inch or two - the stone was warmer there now from his bulk, if she was going to be so uncooperative, there was at least a little more warmth on this part of the ground now for her to enjoy. She squeezed her eyes shut and nudged her snout even further away. He sighed, she could do what she pleased - he was going to at least try to go to sleep - no telling if it would do any remote good, but he was going to try. He laid his blunt gray nose on his white paws and closed his eyes.

It may have been a few minutes, it may have been a few hours - he wasn't sure, but hesitantly a smaller body settled beside his, not restfully, the muscles were tense and a careful distance was being kept, but it was close enough where he could feel the chill from the surface and the spicy scent of ash tree and fern-loam came to him - slightly damp. Her eyes were still determinedly looking away and it was the stiffest coming near of anyone he'd ever seen, but at least she was getting warmed. And she needed it! The cold didn't bother him anymore - but he could still feel it - hers was sharp, weary, wet chill. Power help him if she got pneumonia over this - everyone's nerves were thin enough as it was.

"Fine," she grumbled, spitting and fuming under her breath.

"You are freezing,"

...Good job Epsilon, stating the obvious, as usual. He needed something to tail that - to make it sound less like an accusation - nothing came to mind. He shifted his body so it curved around her, more surface area for her to warm herself with. She didn't like him coming too close, so he merely left the option open for her to move at her own pace. She didn't like to be confronted - if she was going to do anything, she wanted to make the call on how and when she did it, fine. As long as she didn't let herself freeze to death.

Freeze - miracle enough that she didn't drown - he'd been sure he was about to drop her down there. The strain of her lifeless weight against the water, his teeth had nearly been grinding together to keep her from slipping down to the depths. ...Wait a minute...had he pierced all the way through? He raised his head and peered at the fur on the back of her neck. "I'd forgot - is your neck alright?" his pupils had dilated in the dark so he squinted closer, nose dipping nearer her spine and the nape of her neck and skull. He wasn't touching her, he was a full three whiskers from ruffling through her neck fur, but he was close enough now where he could see the individual hairs and see the curves of her shoulders and neck through her pelt. Were there any piercings or gauges from when his teeth had gripped? He couldn't tell - he leaned down just a bit closer.

[Rykett]

Epsilon’s only remark as she finally accepted his help was ”You are freezing.” ”Of course I am,” Blaise grumbled, softly. Half of her wanted to respond to the comment by scooting away, but the other half want to use it as an excuse to move closer. Blaise did neither and instead just stayed put. She closed her eyes, hoping she could escape into unconsciousness, but no sleep came.

Instead, Blaise felt a huff of breath on her neck and her eyes snapped open as Epsilon spoke. ”It’s fine,” she snapped, jerking away. Her sudden movement struck Epsilon’s nearing muzzle as she bent her neck away. ”Ah!” Blaise exclaimed. She hadn’t realized Epsilon was so close, ”I’m sorry! I didn’t know you-” Blaise checked to see if Epsilon was hurt. A trickle of blood ran from his nostril. ”Oh… your nose,” Blaise hesitated. Should she try to staunch the bleeding in some way? Her paws were both neatly tucked beneath her. It’d be a little uncomfortable pulling them out, especially with Epsilon so close.

[Fierfly]

Epsilon:

He hadn't been going to touch her - just - he was trying to look. Well, he got a much closer look than he'd been anticipating. Blaise jerked up and the base of her skull thwacked into his long, blunt snout straight on. His blue eyes screwed shut, ears pinned back as she yelped and he tried to pull back and away from the source of impact - and bite off a curse. Do not swear, do not swear, do not swear. No, he couldn't stop it. "Great!-" he caught himself and lowered his voice, squinting one eye open. Amora stirred and buried her snout under her remaining paw, Kanga stirred and made an extra loud snore, but thankfully, no one fully awoke. "-Geist!" he hissed under his breath, trying not to whine. Blaise was hurrying a desperate, whispered apology, maybe she hadn't heard the expletive. She hadn't realized - probably that he was so close. This would teach him to approach a beast when they had been snarling at him moments before. "It's fine," he insisted, "It's fine,".

A drop of moisture began sliding down his nose and sliding toward his lip - he recognized the coppery scent, but it took a moment for it to register in his mind that it was coming from him.

He'd always been a terrible liar.

Blaise realized what had happened about the same time he did. "Oh...your nose,"[/i] she looked at the scarlet on his freckled muzzle helplessly, he stared between her ears, still not entirely sure he was understanding or realizing what had just happened. What had he done to deserve his? How had it happened? Why was their blood in one's nose? What was the point of that?! And why should this little trauma arouse it now?? He'd taken worse tumbles with rougher bumps and bruises in his life - this shouldn't have-

As if he couldn't do enough wrong in front of the alphess.

He brought his paw up and swiped it over his snout - now he could really feel it coming. "It's fine," he insisted futily, licked his wrist and tried to bathe his nose. The scarlet tears kept coming. He was going to start bleeding on something. "Don't worry about it," and clamped one paw over his nose to try and hide the wound to prove it.

[Rykett]

Blaise watched helplessly as Epsilon tried to stop the bloody nose. He repeatedly told her that it was fine. Everything was supposed to be fine. They both kept saying that everything was fine. Nothing was fine! They kept lying to each other just like Blaise kept lying to herself. Blaise didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want to peel away her layers of pain. Blaise had problems she didn’t want to think about, problems that were just too hard to solve. Like Ruko, for example, he was out there alone and Blaise had failed at telling him what he needed to hear. But she kept pretending like Ruko didn’t even exist. She kept pushing her failures to the back of her mind and just focusing on being an alphess.

”I’m sorry,” Blaise repeated to Epsilon. She rested her muzzle on her paws and looked away. ”It seems I can’t help, but hurt those around me…” The words were quiet as if Blaise hadn’t even intended to speak them aloud.

[Fierfly]

Epsilon:

A drop of blood fell from his lip and landed on the stone floor beside his other paw. He shifted his limb to hide it and took a deep breath in through his mouth. If he could just hold this disaster together for a little longer-

"I'm sorry," Blaise repeated,

He didn't want to look down - more blood would flow and she was seeing him in a terribly awkward and vulnerable position - one not flattering or really very comfortable to either of them. "Don't worry, it's-" he tried to insist.

She turned away and lay her head on the ground. "It seems I can't help but hurt those around me..."

Had he heard right? No, that couldn't have been it. Had she said anything at all? Maybe, maybe not, it had been so quiet he couldn't be certain. ...No, he'd heard it.

"No - that's not true," he struggled for a moment with how to proceed. As suddenly as it had started to gush, his nosebleed was beginning to slow and calm. He brought his paw back down so he could speak clearly. Surely that was a sight to behold - a terrible, heathenish sight, but no real harm had been done, it was almost over, he could manage without his shield now. "That's not being fair to yourself Alphess, or to me - I brought this on myself." a rueful frown - it was his fault for startling her, but that didn't make his nose smart less. "You're doing well as a leader - no harm to be found in that." he risked a peek down at his cover-paw. Lightly stained. He cautiously cleaned it and tried to wipe the blood off his snout without agitating his wound again. "There, you see? No real damage done,". Of course, he wasn't expecting her to actually turn and look, and she had nothing to compare this to as she hadn't seen him with his paw down, but truly, aside from the disconcerting scent of copper and some cosmetic failures, he wasn't any for the worse.