The night air is dry, slashing at Gerard's wet skin and burning his lungs. He still heaves, tired and sore. Vulnerability at its finest.
Gray eyes stay in place, pupils blown wide with the night. Gerard tries to tell himself he's lost too much sleep, or that he's not used to seeing in the dark yet. But, branches crack again behind the trees and he knows something is there, fear pinning him in the dirt. Space in between trees gets bigger as it moves closer to the clearing, taking slow and heavy steps.
A bright white-gray form breaks through the tree line, a big body held to the Earth by four muscular legs. Ears twitch as it freezes twenty feet away.
The wolf itches closer, crouched low. Gerard finds it presence familiar, but the new scent attacks his senses and screams at his unwilling body to run.
It's ten feet away now, not alarmed, but curious. Every time Gerard blinks it seems to come a bit closer, dragging its heavy and hurt body into the clearing. The new comer makes no noise other than its movement does.
Every inch seems slow for the wolf, leaning on three legs rather than four and letting its back right paw drag limply in the dirt.
Gerard doesn't make a move to run once it's a yard away, just an inch far of close enough to touch. It looms over him, sat high on its hind legs. The sixteen year old finds no emotion in its gray eyes, starring way too intently at him.
The wolf turns, looking for anything bigger than it before laying down a bit closer to Gerard and curling up.
The familiar feeling is back, like something right on the tip of Gerard's tongue, he can't figure out who this wolf form belongs to, or why they've decided to do this.
Even if he wanted to, Gerard can't move much, not with the amount of times he'd been dropped, or whatever the shock of the water did to him. His legs shake, itching to move and extremely cold.
The wolf still watches him, big black pupils tracing his shaking form. It soothes Gerard in a weird way and he doesn't protest when it moves even closer, warm fur pressing into his side. A heavy head drops on Gerard's chest and he sighs, relaxing a bit.
He doesn't know who this is, or why they're here. But, Gerard feels he's got not much to loose, and he's rather take a chance and stay warm and protected than die of hypothermia.
His eyes start to close on their own accord, tension releasing as the teen falls asleep. The gray form against him stays molded to his side. Gerard shivers once more and his head fall back into the dirt as he allows exhaustion to take its toll.
*
Daylight tinges the back of Gerard's eyelids a muted orange. Some birds chirp in the trees above and their wings flap loudly as they all move from one branch to another.
The mud beneath Gerard had caved in a bit, making itself his own personal wet and cold foam mattress.
He hums, flicking dry dirt from in between his fingers with his thumb.
He blinks his eyes open, expecting the Cali Sun, Lyn-z in a sleeping bag next to him. Gerard smiles, looking at the sky and wondering briefly where his sleeping bag had disappeared to. Maybe he had rolled out of it. He moves to get up, expecting to happily poke and pull at Lyn-z until she's awake enough to cook him something on the little grill they always brought when they went camping.
A sharp pain comes shooting up from Gerard's neck, he winces, going to soothe the aching muscle with his hand. When moving his arm, pain flairs up as well, causing him to groan loudly. The teen drops his dead arm back into the dirt, squeezing his eyes shut and starting to sit up.
Gerard groans in pain, keeping his eyes shut as he comes into a sitting position, seemingly every muscle in his body aches, screaming at him to stop whatever the hell he's doing.
Dirt cakes in his hair and deep in the grooves of his jeans and sweat shirt. Some of it squishes under him with his limited movements.
The omega turns slowly to wake Lyn-z up, blinking his eyes open again and opening his mouth to start to bitch.
Oh.
The mud inclines next to Gerard's body outline, showing a much bigger thing had sat there for an extended period of time. When Gerard looks closely, he can see some individual lines where fur had been squished down.
It all comes crashing down at once. Bert, the lake, the omega boy, and the wolf that had seemingly protected him. Gerard moves a hand up slowly to push matted hair away from the side of his muddy face. He pulls his hoodie sleeves over his hands, suddenly aware of his exposure to the cold.
A deer creeps out from the trees across the lake, maybe thirty feet away. Small faded white dots freckle its sides, antler stubs well on their way to growing in fully.
Gerard smiles at the animal as it stops to drink despite himself. The thing would have some more time to live before whatever pack it wandered to decided it was old enough to eat.
The thing looks up quickly, long neck jerking to pull itself up. As if aware it had been starred at, the animal looks directly to Gerard. It gives him a glance before turning back into the lake.
YOU ARE READING
Belonging
Fanfiction"It didn't feel right, nothing did anymore, the names and faces would jumble out through his ears at night anyway. They didn't fit right there, and Gerard knows they never will." YOU ASKED FOR IT AND I GAVE IT TO YOU. I DON'T KNOW WHY EVERYONE WANT...
