The sound of harsh panting brought Fox uncomfortably out of his dream.

Really Henry?

At least he didn't hear Noah at all.

Can you jerk off in the bathroom or something? This is definitely not the alarm clock I wanted to wake up to today.

Instead of the sound stopping or a snide remark being said, Fox heard an exhausted groan and reluctantly blinked open one eye very hesitantly. After some mental preparation and a self-reminder about where the soap is on the bathroom counter if he needed to wash his eyes out, Fox slowly let the one he'd opened move until he could see Henry's faint outline in the darkness.

Wait a second.

Blinking open his other eye, he stood up. After a brief stretch, he hopped off his bed of blankets and wandered over to where Henry was lying on the sofa. Noah had clearly gone to bed a while ago, and to Fox's surprise, had left Henry on the couch again.

After a few brief, curious sniffs, he put his front paws on the edge of the sofa and lifted himself up enough to look down at the man.

Oh, hey. Something isn't right.

Leaning closer, Fox took another sniff, then flicked his left ear as he dropped back down to the carpet, then walked closer to Henry's legs. They were covered in a light blanket, but it had clearly been kicked about, likely because of whatever was affecting the man.

Hey Henry?

He wasn't really expecting a response, so when he didn't receive one right away he lifted himself up again near Henry's legs, then sniffed.

Ah.

Dropping back down, he carefully grabbed the edge of the blanket and tugged until it slid off to the floor. The faint smell of blood grew exponentially once the barrier was gone, leaving the man's dark soaked pant leg in plain view.

Hey Noah?

When silence was his only response, Fox flattened his ears and twitched his nose. Even if he was able to shift right then, he wouldn't be all that useful. He wasn't the best at using his fingers yet, and still kind of just pawed at things.

Walking in a circle a few times, Fox considered a few options. He could bite Henry, which would probably work, but add another issue that would need dealt with. The next thought that came to mind was scratching at Noah's door, but the man could be hard to wake up, especially after a long day at work. Add the stress of the bad day he'd had?

Doubt destroying the lower half of his door is going to help.

He found himself wandering over to Noah's door anyway, but then was lost on what to do from there. Eventually, he dropped his bum to the carpet and huffed.

If he hears my human voice maybe he will wake up easier, but I don't feel my other half anywhere near the surface.

It tended to be the farthest thing from his mind, honestly.

Hey... you? Me? Human me. I need you to come out now.

Much to not his surprise, nothing happened.

Noah! Hey Noah! Wake up! The guy who wants to hump you is dying on the couch and it's really uncomfortable for me to sleep when that's happening!

Frustrated, Fox flopped onto his belly and started biting at the carpet, growling as he tried to tear out bits and pieces.

"What did the floor do to you?" Noah mumbled as he ran a hand through his terribly mussed up hair.

Without releasing the string of carpet between his teeth, Fox turned toward the living room and lifted a paw to point in that direction. The gesture seemed to snap the guy out of his sleep fog and had him moving in that direction. When he rounded the corner Fox felt a flood of anxiety rush through his mind, making him sit down right at the entrance to the room and simply watch the situation play out. It wasn't like he could help, so he stayed out of the way, chewing his carpet string, sampling its flavor contentedly as if it were a container of popcorn and he was watching a movie.

Noah managed to Henry awake enough to stand with some help. He then carefully guided the guy down the hall and into the bathroom. After closing the toilet seat, he lowered Henry down onto it, then ran out of the room to return a few moments with scissors.

You shouldn't run with those, you know. They stab things and stuff.

Fox lazily followed Noah, hopping up onto the counter after giving his string a few strong tugs to free a bit more thread from the carpet to cover the distance needed to ascend to his preferred perch.

By the time he got settled and gave his paw a few good licks, Noah had cut Henry's pant let mostly off, leaving just enough for modesty.

Boo, no show.

Henry, barely able to lift his head, turned it just enough to send him a one-eyed glare.

You look like crap, Fox added helpfully, making Henry drop his chin back down to his chest and groan right before Noah lifted his left leg and carefully turned him so that it was over the tub.

Grabbing a small pot he started leaving in the bathroom to help give Fox baths, Noah turned on the spigot and filled it with warm water before grabbing a clean wash cloth with his other hand and starting to rinse the blood off Henry's leg. He gently rubbed most of the red from his skin, then worked much more carefully near the actual injury.

As the wound began to become visible with most of the blood gone, Fox twitched an ear and leaned forward, crinkling his nose.

Okay, I kind of take back being rude to you earlier.

The guy honestly looked like he needed to get some stitches, but as Fox looked even closer, he felt a shiver run down his spine.

"You stitched this up, didn't you?"

Ooooo, Noah is not happy.

When Henry just shrugged, Noah pursed his lips. Fox could see his jaw ticking from anger, but he seemed to bite his tongue on saying anything else as he got up and grabbed some soap from the counter, then returned to kneeling next to Henry. Without a word he lathered up the cloth, then added a bit of water before going to town on cleaning the injury properly.

Fox actually felt bad for Henry and flinched with him several times when Noah seemed particularly rough. Henry kept still until a particularly hard scrub made him jump and grab Noah's hand.

He knew that it wasn't exactly fair to be so forceful with cleaning the wound, even though Henry hadn't been upfront about it, but Fox didn't hesitate to bare his teeth and give a warning growl to Henry.

The man gave a tired sigh and, instead of yelling at Noah or getting physical, he gently tugged the guy's hand until Noah slowly turned to face him on his knees. Seeing the tears running down Noah's cheeks made Fox immediately jump to his feet, but he just barely managed to hold himself back as Henry moved his damaged leg out of the tub, then turned until Noah was between his legs. He then carefully leaned over and gently wrapped his arms around the other man's shoulders before resting his forehead in the crook of his neck.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you. I should have taken care of it the second I walked in the door," he said as he leaned back to see Noah's expression. When he got scowled at, he quickly backtracked what he'd said.

"Sorry, I mean I should have dealt with it right after I left my clinic and gone to an actual human doctor to get it properly cleaned and stitched."

Noah seemed to accept that answer because, after a minute, he stood up and walked over to take something out of the medicine cabinet above Fox's head. He opened a small bottle and took out two pills, then handed them to Henry before putting the bottle back.

"Will you be able to sleep?" he asked as he turned to Henry and started helping him up after he'd downed the pills dry.

The man nodded and carefully limped toward Noah's bedroom, using him for support. Fox followed, but instead of entering the room, he watched Noah help Henry into his bed. Once the man was completely tucked in, his eyes already closed as his body finally relaxed, Noah sat down on his own side and looked over toward him.

"Thank you for getting me, Fox... but can you spit out that string? It's unwinding the carpet."

Fox twitched an ear and finally spit out the now-extremely long string of carpeting and sniffed indignantly. His response got a chuckle from Noah, but he could tell that the man was about to fall asleep himself.

Go to sleep. I'm going to go out for a while.

Noah tilted his head with a curious look. "At this time of night?"

It was probably close to one or two in the morning, but, unbeknownst to Noah, he did often take nightly strolls since the dog door was installed in the back sliding door. He was getting more used to living with people, but that definitely didn't mean that his animal form had lost control. It craved being outside, and he had no intention of fighting it when the instinct hit to get out.

When Fox didn't respond, Noah got up and walked over to him, then knelt down. Fox knew what was coming, and, for once, he let Noah scoop him up into his arms for a tight hug, then a kiss on the head.

"Be careful, and call out for me if you end up getting into trouble... again. I'll find you," he said as he set Fox back down, then gave his head a quick pet before standing and turning off the light, then heading to bed.

Dismissed, Fox jogged around the corner and into the living room, then out the doggy door. The night air was frigid and it was snowing, making him hesitate for only a second before he hopped off the porch and straight into a foot of the powdery white stuff.

The abrupt cold sent a shock to his system, immediately chasing away any thoughts of resting.

Time for a hunt.

After clearing a few fences, Fox landed on the sidewalk and started walking toward the park a few blocks away, keeping his eyes and ears open for any possible hiding snacks along the way. It was always harder to find food in winter, since most prey animals hunkered down more and tended to disappear beneath the snow.

He made it almost all the way to the park without a single hint of life until he smelled something that had his nose crinkling in disgust and his heart racing immediately.

"Hey there, little brother. It's been a while."

Without even looking, Fox turned on his paws and bolted. He was pretty fast in his animal form, but the rising snow was already several inches thick on the sidewalk and building as the sky let loose a frigid flurry of flakes.

He could tell that he wasn't getting far enough away to escape, but he refused to stop. The sound of his brother's heavy boots weren't gaining, but they definitely weren't falling very far behind.

Need to go faster.

Fox pushed himself, but the darn building snow kept grabbing at his soaked paws, stopping every burst of momentum he tried to muster.

After what felt like forever he turned into an alleyway and, relieved that there was barely any snow between the two massive buildings, bolted down the dark passage, then turned and ran down a second one. The moment he came back out onto another sidewalk he ran across the street where the snow had been partially mowed down by cars earlier in the evening, and straight into another alley. He couldn't hear his brother anymore, but that meant little since the wind had picked up and it was getting hard to hear much of anything over it, even within the enclosed alleyway. It whistled like a freight train through the narrow space.

He was nearing the next exit when he spotted a man in a large trench-coat leaning against the faded brick with a freshly lit cigarette between his gloved fingers.

I'm going to hate myself for this...

Giving himself one final push for speed, Fox ran over to the man and shifted mid-jump. He grabbed the man's coat sloppily and used his own momentum to swing him around. Fox's bare back slammed against the frozen bricks at the same time the man's coat nearly covered his naked body entirely and his hands hit the bricks on either side of Fox's head, the lit cigarette still safely snug between his fingers as it gave off a tiny stream of smoke.

Too close.

Wary alarm bells rang in his mind but he knew that it was better to trust the random stranger over his brother, so Fox grabbed the man's shirt and pulled him closer, then tucked himself firmly against his chest and ducked his head down.

The sound of footsteps met his ears moments later, but, to his relief, they didn't falter as they ran past them, then disappeared into the building snowstorm outside the alleyway.

Fox remained frozen where he stood, his bare feet already becoming numb in the thin layer of snow that had blown in from the entrance. Once he had regained what he could of his composure he forced his teeth to stop chattering and looked up into the eyes of his savior.

Glasses. Dark hair. Dark eyes, though I can't tell what color they are...

"If you lean in any closer, I might mistake your intentions," the man said abruptly, snapping Fox out of his curiosity and immediately making him revert back into his animal form.

The man jumped back from surprise, finally dropping his cigarette as he stared down at Fox.

"Well, that explains why you were cozying up to me naked."

You wish. It was a last resort.

"I feel like you're shit-talking me, fox."

Oh my! How on Earth did you know my name?

"You..."

Without waiting for the man to finish his sentence, Fox hurried from the alley, intent on getting his butt back home. There was a heated blanket and leftovers calling his name. He could be a fierce hunter another day... when his brother wasn't stalking him. He'd thought that he'd just return to his own state, but he was definitely still around, for some reason.