Going Out Tonight, She Changes Into Something Red

He smiled softly as she joined him on the bed, watching as she laid with her back to him. He was tempted to reach out to her, but even the thought of moving right now made his muscles ache. In the moment he had known he was hurt, but it wasn't until afterward when he had Aranea back within the castle and he was watching her wounds be treated that he really started to feel it. He let his eyes close with a soft sigh and honestly expected to fall asleep immediately with how exhausted he was, but as minutes ticked by sleep never came. He kept replaying the moment that he ran up to the base of the falls and saw Aranea laying lifeless on the ledge... how heart wrenching and terrifying that moment had been. He knew that he would have gone out of his way to help any of his pack mates, but would he have reacted that strongly for all of them?

His eyes opened enough to see the faint outline of her shape in the darkness while his thoughts continued to roll from one memory to another, one possibility to another. At some point he lost track of exactly what he was thinking about - but whatever train of thought he happened to be on always seemed to end in the same place. When Aranea rolled over to face him he was hovering somewhere between wakefulness and sleep, his body unable to decide what it wanted more. His ears perked at her faint, quiet voice saying his name and he tipped his head down to look at her better, just able to make out the blue sheen of her eyes and the faint glimmer of silver in her fur from the moonlight that came in from the window above the bed.

A bit of worry creased his brow as she whispered her fear and pressed her face to his chest, but he also couldn't blame her for being scared - no matter what it was. Whether it was something about tonight, something about them, something about the pack, something about life in general... He felt like just in the last couple of weeks he had basically assisted in turning everything upside down around her and he felt responsible for any amount of fear she felt. He gently tucked his head down over hers and managed to bring his foreleg up to rest it around her shoulders - careful not to touch any of her wounds in the process. "That's okay," he replied just as softly. "I'll protect you."

Walk | "Talk" | think