wild | stiles stilinski ✅

| NINE |

          

Someone was calling out his name but Ash desperately wanted to keep his eyes shut and ignore the reality for as long as he could.

"Ash," Someone repeated his name again with a gentle touch on the shoulder this time.

Therefore Ash forced himself to open his eyes. "Stiles?" He murmured without actually aiming for it, blinking a few times to adjust his eyes to the light of the room.

"No, hey, I am Kira," The kitsune ushered out her words as she helped him sat straight. Ash wanted to smile at her presence, the kindness in her gestures was making it easier to live past that moment. Something inside him was to broken to curve his lips upwards, instead he stared at her with wide eyes, trying to recall every detail. "I'm sorry, uh I'm a friend of Stiles. Do you know that- I guess you already knew who I was. Anyways. And, you're at my house. Stiles is downstairs. I'm truly sorry if I freaked you out-"

Ash shook his head in disapproval, tried to offer a kind smile. Judging by the worried and unconvinced look on the kitsune's face, he was not managing a proper smile. He wanted to slump with defeat, frown, cry or just wanted to go back to sleep but he did none of those. Instead he cleared his throat and cringed at his rough voice. "Nice to meet you Kira. In person, that is," Ash mumbled and added quickly, "I'm okay."

Kira didn't seem to be entirely convinced after this statement, after all he looked pretty fragile under  the covers, with his pale skin showing off the dark circles circling his eyes that were clearly been doing some crying for quite a while. Thankfully she didn't insist on getting more words out of him. "We are heading off to the animal clinic and I thought you should rest but Stiles told me that you would be angry if we left without telling you."

She smiled gently and Ash gave her a nod. "He thought right. I have to be there."

They headed downstairs and Kira's parents were pretty welcoming towards Ash. He gladly took the cup of tea her mother offered, meanwhile avoiding the eye contact with Stiles. "Thank you Mrs. Yukimura."

"Are you sure you want to come? You can rest if you want..." Stiles muttered while he got up from his place taking strength from his arms, Ash helped him stand on his feet.

Stiles leaned against him like it was a natural thing to do and Ash didn't object. "Not staying behind," Ash stated firmly and his tone left no open door for a discussion.

Nobody tried to talk him out of it. Everyone was in pain on their own terms, it felt like walking around eggshells.

Regardless they had to keep moving. Ash had to keep going, he didn't have enough time to stop and think about his wounds. Wounds on his skin and wounds on his heart. So, he pushed forward and they kept going.

Stiles had been leaning against Ash, depending on him for walking. Stiles' struggle with something as simple as walking made Ash feel terrible but he tried to conceal his discomfort. He was obviously failing at that while the car ride included an awkward tension and the minimum usage of words. Ash wasn't complaining about the not talking thing because he wasn't feeling like having a forced conversation. Although it was clear that Kira thought against it since the kitsune kept on glancing over the car's mirror which made Ash curious wondering the reason behind her act.

Therefore he was both relived and bummed when she decided to let out what's been lingering inside her head. "You knew my last name." Kira exclaimed and she didn't make much sense without context. Ash raised an eyebrow through the mirror, Kira sighed before continuing. "You called my mother with our last name but I didn't tell you that. It's all so weird."

Normally this kind of question coming out of nowhere would've make Ash feel attacked but Kira didn't seem to hold any accusations in her tone, she sounded genuinely curious.