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fatfitallie · 5 years

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"I want to make a wolf Viagra joke, but you look so dejected I can't."

Willy grabs Mitch' hands again, squeezing his fingers so tight Mitch winces. He closes his eyes and starts murmuring to himself. Mitch waits and waits and waits a little longer. "Dude, it's okay, I hear it happens to guys all the time."

Willy grunts and lets go of Mitch' hands. "I wonder if it just doesn't work on humans."

"Well, it does, obviously."

"I mean maybe it's an Alpha thing."

"That's cruel. Give it to the one person in the pack least likely to use it."

"Not all Alphas are dicks."

Mitch throws his hands up. "Have you exchanged greeting cards with a particularly friendly one or something?"

"I'm just saying, we have a pretty limited sample."

They leave the library together, but split for opposite directions in the hall. Mitch shouts at Willy's back, "Hey, man, it's really okay! It happens to the best."

Mitch can hear the growl.

---

Mitch smells Auston before he even steps into his bedroom and hey, that's weird because it's been a couple days and he definitely hasn't felt any lingering effects of the wolfshare -- or whatever, Mitch really needs to start making lists and naming things -- since. He's sure Auston'll be sitting at his desk reading something.

"Mitch, I can hear you breathing."

Mitch steps into the room. "You can probably hear my hair growing. That's not really a commentary on me." Mitch throws his backpack down and grabs a pair of shorts from his dresser. He starts to undo his jeans. "Dude, some privacy?"

Auston turns his eyes back to the papers in his hand and Mitch pulls off his jeans and pulls on the shorts and a clean t-shirt. He stretches out on the bed. "It'd be nice to be healed already. Taking off my pants shouldn't be exhausting."

"Some of that's the Vicodin."

"I didn't have any today. My Patty said I'm well enough to suffer."

"Healing takes a lot of energy."

"Being alive takes a lot of energy."

"You smell like Willy."

"I know that these kinds of conversations are totally normal for werewolves, but that is such a creepy thing to say to a person." Mitch folds his arms under his head. "Don't I usually smell like Willy? I'm around him every day."

"You smell like Willy exerting himself. It's early and I know you haven't showered, so I know it wasn't lacrosse."

Mitch' eyes go wide and he holds his hands up in the air, gesturing. "Do you see how that's a weird thing to say to someone? 'I know you haven't showered' isn't a thing you say to someone unless you want to alert them to your history of stalking or to their general odor."

"I'm a werewolf and your primary concern about me being around is that I know too much about you?"

"It's one thing for you to know that I like tomato soup or that I don't wash my socks enough. You know too much about my scents."

Auston holds up the werewolf packet. "Scent is the primary source of ambient sensory information for wolves. You even have it highlighted."

"Knowing it doesn't make it any less weird."

Auston goes back to reading, pen in hand this time and Mitch is surprised how easy it is to stay quiet. He's tired and sore. The pain lessens a little every day, but by the time he gets home from school he's kind of out of energy and enthusiasm. He got caught up on the last of his make-up work at the end of his first week though, so at least it's only the usual mountain of homework every night. He has a check-up tomorrow and he probably won't have to bandage it anymore after that. "Willy was trying to pain drain me. It didn't work. Is it an Alpha thing?"

"It's a been-a-werewolf-for-longer-than-a-year thing. But being an Alpha helps."

"He does it to animals at the clinic."

"So does Mo."

"But neither of them can do it to humans."

Auston shuffles the papers in his hands half-heartedly. Mitch thinks he looks sort of tentative. "My Patty could do it. I've never known anyone else."

"Werewolf mojo hereditary gifts. Weird."

"Weirder than the rest of it?"

"Not particularly, no."

Mitch stretches again and closes his eyes, listening to Auston rustling papers. He can smell Auston still and if he focuses just enough, he can smell the cold air that's leaking in through the gaps around his window and he can kind of smell the dirty laundry jammed in his closet. If this is a tenth of what werewolves get... It has to be overwhelming all the time. "I can smell stuff."

"That's good?"

"No, I mean, I can smell stuff more than normal. Like, I can smell my laundry and the air outside. And I stopped before I came in because I could smell you. Is that... still a side effect?"

"Maybe you're just learning to use your senses by not running your mouth so much."

"Auston Matthews's got jokes."

"No, I mean it. If you shut up once in a while, you'd probably realize how strong your senses actually are. Humans aren't wolves, but you're still animals."

Mitch closes his eyes and focuses. He can hear a lawnmower outside and the pages turning, but not much else. If he really stops moving, he can hear his heartbeat steady in his ears. He hears the pages stop turning and knows Auston is going to sit on the bed by the way the floor creaks. It's not a lot, but it's kind of cool to not be startled.

"This is the last time. You're almost healed."

"You're my hero."

"Shut up, Mitch."

Mitch does. He closes his eyes and focuses on Auston's hand sliding into place against his ribs, the heat of his palm and the callouses he can feel at his fingertips. He feels like he's drowning in a hot bath and everything smells like Auston -- hot asphalt and leaves and the smoky sweetness -- and he thinks it'd be an okay way to go, which is a really weird thing to think. His stomach does that turnover, the quick little flop, and Mitch twitches a little. He knows what that feeling means when he's around Josty. He doesn't understand at all why it's happening around Auston.

Auston's hand is on him for a long time, the other one curled into a fist against the mattress, just touching Mitch' hip, to brace Auston's weight. Mitch feels so warm and comfortable and safe and it's crazy, his life, how there are monsters around him every day and they're the people he likes the most. Willy and Auston. Mo. Even JT. How he's vulnerable not just to the monsters they attract and the hunters, but to them -- he's utterly vulnerable to his friends, a human in a den of wolves. It's not so bad. He was wrong about the worsts. The worst thing is that someday it'll end.

When Auston finally pulls back, he looks paler than he has before and Mitch feels drugged almost to the point of unconsciousness. He doesn't know how long Auston touched him, but it's darker in the room than when Mitch closed his eyes and Auston is obviously drained. Why didn't he stop sooner?

"Are you okay?"

Auston nods, running a hand over his face, and tries to stand. He's weak on his feet though and Mitch pulls him back down. "Here, here. Just sit here until it passes." He moves over on the bed and tries to situate Auston next to him. Auston is large and heavy. "You should've stopped. You look awful."

"It kept going. I didn't. I couldn't leave you with it like that. It seemed so much worse."

"I feel really good. Thank you." Mitch shifts more and Auston settles into the bed more. He did not think his life would get weirder than Auston Matthews hanging out with him and literally draining his pain away, but now Auston Matthews is in his bed with him. He's going to have to set the weirdness bar a lot higher.

"Are you okay?" Auston is still pale and his eyes are closed, but Mitch can see pink across his cheeks under the dark fan of his eyelashes. He doesn't think he's ever stared at anybody's face as hard. Auston's skin looks so soft where it isn't shaded with stubble.

Auston nods. "Just need a few."

"I'm sorry. I should've stopped you. I'm not very good at self-control when something feels good. I'm sorry."

"Mitch?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

---

When Mitch wakes up -- and god, he'd really like to stop losing hours of his day to uncontrollable naps, he's starting to feel narcoleptic or old -- Auston is still next to him, stretched out and kind of snoring softly. All the color's back in his face and he seems steady. Mitch still feels soft around the edges and if he's honest, he kind of doesn't want to move. Auston is awfully close to him and that's pretty weird and all, but he's still so sleepy and it's dark outside. He could just settle back in and sleep until the morning. Except for how it's really quiet and he's still holding very still and even though he can still smell Auston and cold and dirty laundry, he can hear too. He can hear the front door closing.

"Shit!" Mitch jerks upright, knocking into Auston and trying to scramble out of the bed against the pain in his side. "My Patty is home. Get up, get up!"

Auston goes from snoring to alert and awake in about a second and Mitch acknowledges it just long enough to be jealous and impressed. He sits down at the desk, throws Mitch a pen and a notebook, and picks up the copy of The Scarlet Letter. Mitch starts scribbling on the paper, mostly "oh shit" over and over again. When his Patty knocks, Mitch takes a deep breath and tells him to come in.

"How are you feeling?" He turns toward Auston. "Auston. Good to see you." Mitch sees the twitch of his Patty's jaw, the set of it. He's not actually all that glad to see Auston.

"Sheriff." Auston nods. "You look well."

Mitch kind of wants to crawl out of his own skin and into the forest as muscle and bone. Anything to escape this incredibly awkward moment. His Patty tuns toward him again. "Feeling okay?"

"Yep, much better. Auston's helping me with a rewrite of the English essay I missed. Mr. Stanley didn't like it, but he gave me another shot because I still have a gaping wound in my side."

"Nice of him."

"He's an okay guy."

"Nice of Auston to help you out. Wouldn't think he'd remember junior English."

"I didn't read it in high school actually. I wasn't a very dedicated student. But I read it in a college class."

"Probably a good perspective for Mitch to have."

Auston smiles and Mitch is totally distracted by it. "I sure hope so." It's a good smile and even though he's smiling because he's being a dick, it doesn't make it any less okay to look at.

"Well, I'm going to head down and scrounge up something for dinner. You come down in about a half hour?"

"Absolutely." Mitch can still feel his heart pounding in his chest.

"You're welcome to join us, Auston."

Auston has the good sense and grace to frown apologetically. "Sorry, Sheriff, I can't, but thank you for the invitation. I'll have to take a rain check."

Mitch' Patty nods and turns back out of the room, pointedly leaving the door open three-fourths of the way.

Mitch starts to talk, but Auston holds his hand up for about thirty seconds. "He was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. He's in the kitchen now."

"That was really uncomfortable."

"Why did you freak out? Am I not supposed to be here? Because you could've told me. I'd like to stay on your Patty's good side."

"One, no it's not that and two, where you are concerned, my father does not have a good side." Mitch doesn't particularly want to answer the other part of the question because, honestly, would anyone want to tell Auston Matthews that their Patty thought they were dating? Does anyone want to tell anyone that? Everything about that conversation just screams awkward and terrible.

"I can hear your heartbeat, I know you're obsessing."

"I didn't want my Patty to find me in bed with you! That's weird! That's so weird there's not a category for it and frankly I'm shocked you're not more uncomfortable with the idea of being found in bed with the sheriff's son."

"I would've gotten up and been at the desk before he got in here. It just would've been without the stench of terror that's blowing off of you right now."

Mitch fans the air around him toward Auston. "Smell it up, Matthews, smell it up."

"Does your Patty not know you're gay?"

"What? I'm not gay!"

"Mitch..."

"I'm not."

"Okay." Auston actually puts his hands up in surrender and Mitch wants to burn that into his brain forever because he's pretty sure that's the first time Auston has ever surrendered to someone that wasn't trying to violently rip him to pieces. He also tries to remember whatever force he called up to make two little words do it.

Mitch throws himself back on the bed and knows instantly that the pain drain is still in effect because it doesn't hurt nearly as much as it should. "My Patty asked if we were dating! Because you carried me to the hospital from the middle of the forest and waited by my bedside for me to wake up. And apparently that's what people in a relationship do!"

"That's uncomfortable."

"Particularly because I didn't even think we were friends."

"Of course we're friends. Am I not nice to you?" Auston's forehead furrows enough to make Mitch nervous.

"You have been! But, you know, recently. Prior to my being almost gutted, you were kind of a dick. Most of our interactions have ended with you threatening to kill me. Or in you introducing my head to an immovable object."

"That was only once. And technically a steering wheel is movable."

"I still can't believe you talk as much as you do. It's kind of alarming."

"That might be the funniest thing I've ever heard considering the source."

"So many words! You should write a book."

"So your Patty is probably pretty sure we're dating now."

"Probably. And I'm probably about to have an extremely uncomfortable and unappetizing meal of frozen lasagna. But one that is probably not nearly as bad as the one I would've had if he'd found us in bed together."

"Your Patty would just be okay with it?"

"Actually, he said he wasn't because you're like thirty and often on the wrong side of the law. And then he said, 'And I'm the law.' which is a pretty good line, to be fair."

"I'm going to leave now."

"Wise."

---

Dinner is so unabashedly, objectively horrifying that Mitch kind of passes out afterwards and wakes up in a solid state of denial about everything that happened yesterday. He didn't enjoy Auston touching him and he didn't fall asleep in bed with him and his Patty definitely didn't quiz him on condom usage and the dangers of not properly lubricating. It was vague and it was short and it was a clear sign of his Patty's intimate relationship with Google, but Mitch will never have an erection again, which is a bummer because jerking off is kind of one of the bright points of his day.

"Dude, you reek." Willy actually waves his hands in front of his face and grimaces before setting his tray down in front of Mitch and sitting down.

"What? What? Like what?" Mitch smells his armpits and his shirt. "I smell like deodorant. And these clothes are clean. Even my hoodie is clean!"

"You smell like Auston."

"He says I smell like you."

"Well, right now you smell like him. Like... a lot. Like... how I used to smell like Kappy when I left her bedroom."

Mitch shakes his head and waves his hands around in front of his face. "Are you insinuating that I smell like. I can't. I can't even." Mitch swipes his hand across the front of Willy's face like he's erasing a board. "He showed up yesterday. Again."

"You don't smell like hanging out."

"What does that even mean?" Mitch feels a little hystSidl and he's not sure why, aside from the general awkwardness of telling his best friend that he platonically fell asleep next to an Alpha werewolf who he wasn't even particularly friendly with before he almost had his guts ripped out. Platonically, being the key word.

"It smells like you were, you know, close. Dude... Do you need to tell me something?"

"Are you literally asking me right now if I'm hiding a secret relationship with Auston Matthews from you?"

"Uh, apparently."

"I'm not hiding a secret relationship with Auston Matthews from you."

"Then why do you smell like that?"

Mitch makes a strangled growling noise in his throat and he's worried Auston's wrong about the whole temporary side effect thing. Even Willy looks kind of startled by it. "We fell asleep in my bed!" Mitch says it a lot louder than he means to and slams his forehead down on the table. "Ow, Jesus."

"Mitch! What?"

"He did his," Mitch wiggles his fingers in Willy's face, "thing and he did it for too long and he just sort of went pale and passed out and I was already in the bed and I was all mojo-drugged and fell asleep too. It was weird but it's not any weirder than Auston showing up to hang out with me in the first place."

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fatfitallie · 5 years

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Auston laughs -- actually laughs! -- a tiny little low sound in his throat, but Mitch recognizes it for what it is and it's weirdly... It makes him happy? And it's probably because Auston did werewolf-y mojo on him, but it's still nice to think about something other than how much the giant hole in his side hurts. "It's okay to laugh," Mitch says without really meaning to. "I mean. Laughs are good. In general. Laughter is acceptable. And healthy."

Auston picks up the stack of printouts Mitch had been marking up the night he got hurt, untouched since. "Eat, Mitch."

"You should develop more variety in your speech patterns. Or, wait, are commands a thing you do because you're an Alpha? That's weird. It's like natural to you?"

Auston flips the first page over, eyes scanning. Mitch cringes. It's a bunch of collected werewolf lore and the notes he'd been making aren't exactly generous. Auston just keeps reading, pages turning as Mitch dips his sandwich in his soup. It's a good sandwich. Auston's nice. Mitch kind of hates this euphoria thing. He watches Auston laugh and shake his head, grabbing a pen off the table and scribbling something on the paper in his hand. Mitch thinks it's kind of nice to have Auston here. The euphoria thing isn't that bad. It's distracting at least. And his side isn't burning as bad, which is great. He should think about trading Auston for Willy in his friendship hierarchy. Willy hasn't come to see him at all since he's been awake. But he did punch an Alpha. Maybe he'll just be mean to Willy for a while.

"I'm out of here. You going to be okay until your Patty gets home?"

Mitch looks up at Auston. His mouth is definitely hanging open and he knows he has to look confused as hell. "Uh, yes? Yeah. I'm fine."

"Okay." Auston drops the papers on the desk.

"Hey, thank you again. For the not letting me die and the feeding me and also doing your magic stuff." Mitch wiggles his fingers in Auston's general direction. "You're not doing this out of pack duty, are you?"

"What?"

"Like, because Willy is being a really terrible friend," Mitch says really loud just in case Willy is listening somewhere. "You're not... like, covering for him?"

"There is no amount of cover I could provide that would keep Willy from looking like a dick."

"I'm going to be so creeped out if this turns out to be some weird pack dynamics thing that I can't understand because I'm just a lowly human. I refuse to be a pawn in your werewolf chess game, man."

"Mitch?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and get some rest."

Mitch is pretty tired, really, so he settles back into the bed and tries not to anger his wound. Auston's gone before he's settled, but he half shouts, "I'm not going to sleep because you said to!" and he swears, swears, he hears a laugh in the distance.

---

Mitch doesn't see Auston the rest of the week and, if he's being honest with himself -- which, really, he's not that great at -- he kind of misses him? Maybe. Mitch can't be sure of anything, everything still hurts, but his Patty's kind of loosened his grip on the prescription painkillers, so he's feeling a little generally hazy.

Willy does come to see him though. And Josty. With a JT that clearly wasn't at all excited about being there if his running commentary about Mitch' smell was any indication. "Dude, the locker room usually smells better than this. You smell like a walking scab that hasn't bathed in a month."

"You're really sweet, JT. I'm so glad you're here. I think your presence is actually healing me."

JT just smiled sarcastically and went back to playing with his phone while Josty caught Mitch up on classes. She kissed him on the cheek when she left. Normally, he'd have thought immediately about how he should've been impaled sooner. But she was with JT and JT was a wolf now. It wasn't the same. Mitch thought that must be something like growing up, but then he thought about tripping JT the next time it was convenient, so maybe he wasn't ready for any maturity trophies just yet.

---

Mitch heads back to school on Monday with a one-Vicodin-a-day ration and spare bandages in his bag. He's already missed two weeks and it's worth the pain to not have to catch up on any more work than he's already dealing with. He's healing, Willy tells him every time he gets close enough. "I don't know, dude, it's just this smell. Like the opposite of rot."

"I smell like growing? Am I a plant?"

Willy just grins and laughs. "Maybe. It is kind of flowery."

"Kappy called."

"Texted."

Mitch throws his jersey in Willy's face. "You're gross. Love is foul."

Willy tosses the jersey back. "I can't believe Coach is making you dress. You're just going to sit there and look pained."

"I'm going to seize the moment and try to finish at least one of the assignments I missed. I think Josty offered to catch me up to sabotage me. She wants to take valedictorian out from under me. She's using my injury for her own gains."

"You're a junior."

"It's never too early for sabotage."

---

Mitch is actually about to finish one of his English assignments, an essay on the symbolism in The Scarlet Letter because that's really unique and original, when he sees Auston. He's standing at the far end of the field from Mitch, just at the edge of the tree line. He's just standing there, which shouldn't surprise Mitch because that's mostly what Auston does. Mitch does a quick three point check around him, just in case there's a threat he's been oblivious to, but there's no one on the field but the team. He mumbles into his notes, "It's really creepy when you do that. And it's even creepier that you're probably listening to me. Who are you watching? Is this pack business? Stop standing there!"

Greenberg looks over at Mitch, one eyebrow raised.

Mitch shrugs. "I write better when I can say it out loud."

Greenberg rolls his eyes and goes back to his phone.

When Mitch looks up again, Auston is gone. He's kind of... disappointed. He technically told him to stop standing there, but he meant, "Hey! Be a not-creep and come talk to other people!" not "Slink into the woods like a terrifying stealth serial murderer." Mitch isn't very good at expressing himself. Well, he's good at expressing. It's the accuracy that kills him.

---

Mitch falls face down on to his bed as soon as he walks into his bedroom. Well, he sort of half-falls because if he really falls it will hurt a lot and he hates that, so he sort of slumps on to the bed, dropping his lacrosse stick and backpack and trying to undo his jeans against the mattress. Bed is great.

"You take a lot of notes."

Mitch doesn't scream exactly, he's been terrified, injured, and startled far too much in the last year to scream. Actually, he'd be shocked if anything close to a scream ever came out of his mouth again. But he does sort of strangle a loud "What?!" in his throat and barely stops himself from going over the side of the bed.

Auston is sitting at his desk with his werewolf packet on his knee and a pen in his hand. "And a lot of them are wrong."

"Do you find causing terror sexually arousing? Is that a thing? Is that why you spend so much time creeping up on people? Because you get off on it?"

"The notes you have about wolfsbane are wrong. Well, the lore you're citing is wrong too, but your notes aren't good either."

"I know some stuff! I've seen it work pretty damn well on you."

Auston flips the page. "I'm genuinely concerned with how interested you seem to be in mating habits."

Mitch flails his hands in Auston's general direction and pulls himself up on the bed. "That website had a lot of information, okay? I'm just gathering everything I can."

Mitch doesn't miss the curve of Auston's mouth, the smirk. And, uh, that kind of. Mitch apparently has a Feeling about that. Or his body does because his whole abdomen goes kind of warm and his stomach maybe flips a little and, yeah, that's weird. That's... definitely a symptom of being unable to use his dominant hand in its usual way.

Auston goes back to reading and Mitch sits there staring at him for a minute before he realizes that apparently Auston is just going to hang out and quietly read all of his werewolf notes and apparently... highlight them? There is a highlighter in Auston's hand. Mitch blinks a few times and then sinks back into his bed. He's tired and sore. He presses a palm to his bandage. It hurts, but not that bad, and it's warm, but not as hot as when he woke up in the hospital. He's healing.

"Do I smell like flowers?"

Auston finishes marking whatever he's deemed highlight-worthy on his current page and looks up at Mitch. "Generally?"

"No, currently. Like, do I have a floral odor around my person?"

"No." Auston sniffs once, his chin jutting out, nose up. "You smell like healing. And soap. The room is less pleasant. No flowers."

"Willy said healing smells like flowers."

"Willy says Kappy's scent is ginger snaps. I don't trust his ability to accurately identify any smell whatsoever."

"So what does healing smell like?"

"Like red meat and copper."

"Oh that is gross." Mitch stops for a minute, his whole face twisting up. "Wait, doesn't that smell good to you? Oh god, is that why you're hanging around? Because I smell like... Because I smell like food?"

Mitch has never seen Auston's face that blank. It's relaxed, but utterly blank. Mitch can barely hold a straight face when he's trying to prank someone.

"I'm not going to eat you, if that's what you're asking."

"Because I'm not a woodland creature?"

"I've never eaten a human."

"You're not denying the woodland creatures."

Auston is conspicuously and disturbingly quiet and Mitch groans. "Oh, man, at least tell me you don't eat, like, chipmunks and bunnies and stuff. You at least take down deer, right?"

Auston is still conspicuously and disturbingly quiet. Mitch groans again. "I'm sorry I asked." He closes his eyes for and tries not to think about Auston biting the head off a squirrel. He's unsuccessful. "Wait, but you didn't say I didn't smell good."

"What?"

"You just said you weren't going to eat me, you didn't say I didn't smell good."

"It doesn't smell bad. It's just a stronger version of what humans smell like anyway. You all smell like bags of blood, honestly."

"That's gross." Mitch rubs his hands over his face. "But each person is like, a slightly different flavor of blood?"

"Why do you care what you smell like to me?"

"Hey, I'm just interested. We're not all big bad mythical creatures here. Some of us are just sad mortals with no super senses. Some of us are just trying to understand."

Auston goes back to reading the packet of papers and Mitch relaxes all the way back into his pillows. He stretches his arms over his head and then settles them against his sides. The drugs have worn off and he's starting to get achey and uncomfortable. He presses a pillow to his side and the pressure helps a little. Auston and Willy keep telling him he's healing, but he'd really appreciate some super speed wolf-healing now.

When his eyes open again, Auston is sitting at the foot of the bed and it is really unsettling because how long has he been there without Mitch noticing and why is he staring like that and what is he even doing here? Mitch still hasn't worked that part out at all.

"You're hurting." It isn't a question.

Mitch nods. "It's not that bad, but you know, Patty doesn't think I should be dosing on narcotics too hard, lest it lead to a life of crime and pleasure."

Auston shifts up closer, his hip pressed to Mitch', and leans over him, pushes his hand under Mitch' t-shirt and spreads it over his ribs, just short of his bandage. Mitch notices for the first time how huge Auston's hands are. Well, all of Auston is kind of large, but his hands. And his palm is so hot against Mitch' skin and Mitch is getting that warm, fuzzy feeling and he can see the black under Auston's skin and, honestly, he feels really bad about that part and he can't stop thinking about the logistics of it, about how Auston's wolf DNA processes pain like most people process alcohol and how with a touch he can take away so much of Mitch' pain and how Auston's hand is pressed to his bare skin and how his stomach is doing that thing again.

"This is nice. I was right, you're nice."

"Mitch, shut up."

Mitch does because Auston is still touching him and he's very warm and sleepy and he can smell Auston again, like the day he made him lunch, and it's a good smell -- a really good smell, like hot asphalt and fall leaves and smoke and burnt sugar -- and Mitch still doesn't understand why he can identify the scent so clearly, but it's okay because Auston came here and took his pain away and he thinks he and Auston are friends now.

When Auston finally moves his hand away, Mitch whines a little. He doesn't mean to, but it comes out of his mouth all high and sad. He thinks Auston smiles. "You feel better?"

"Yeah, but I'm not going to be able to get any work done. This is like drugs. This is better than drugs. Are you making me a werewolf addict? Is there werewolf rehab?"

Auston doesn't say anything, but Mitch thinks he can feel things radiating from him, feelings like "You're an idiot" and "Shut up, Mitch" but they're kind of friendly and fond and he isn't insulted because it's not like Auston says nice things to people anyway. Mean is Auston's nice. Plus Auston is still sitting next to Mitch, their hips touching and Mitch thinks that's nice too.

"You smell like stuff."

Auston's eyebrows raise just slightly. "I would hope so. Most living things do."

"You smell like... the ground. And leaves. And candy."

"You must be awful when you're drunk."

"No, really. You have a smell. A scent. Maybe you're making me a werewolf. Are you making me a werewolf?"

"Not permanently."

"Are you making me a temporary werewolf?" Mitch is so sleepy.

"There's some crossover when I take the pain. Like a side-effect."

"I can smell really good right now. Plus I can feel you thinking I'm an idiot."

"I'm always thinking you're an idiot. Knowing that is not a skill."

"You are not that nice."

Auston doesn't smile. "I am not that nice." Mitch likes it better when Auston smiles.

"You made me grilled cheese and you saved my life and made it stop hurting so much. That's pretty nice." Mitch touches Auston's knee with two fingers. "Your face is nice and your teeth. And when you laugh that's nice."

"Mitch?"

"Yeah?"

"Go to sleep."

---

"So, I touched Auston's leg last night and told him he had a nice face."

Willy actually spit-takes some of the peach Snapple in his mouth on to the cafeteria table before he says, "What?" Mitch kinda remembers why he's stayed friends with Willy. Well, and the whole he was there before Mom died and he was there through all of it and he stayed over and listened to Mitch cry and pretended not to hear except for when it got really bad and Mitch needed him to hear. He's a pretty good friend, recent record not withstanding.

"I didn't know I was saying it at the time. Well, I guess I did, but I was hoping I'd forget except, man, that werewolf mojo does not work like regular drugs because I remember everything." Mitch smacks the apple out of Willy's hand. "Also, why didn't you tell me you have like," Mitch wiggles his fingers in Willy's face, "magic fingers or whatever you guys call it. I have had some very bad lacrosse practices in my day and I could've used some pain drain."

"I can explain that if you can explain to me why you told Auston he has a nice face. And why you're hanging out with Auston."

"I'm not hanging out with Auston, he just keeps showing up. My Patty asked if we were dating because he was at the hospital so much before I woke up. He hasn't even threatened to rip my throat out or anything. He made me soup."

"He made you soup?"

"And a sandwich. Grilled cheese." Mitch takes a bite of his burrito. "I thought he was doing it out of some kind of pack loyalty to you because you were too busy moping to take care of your friend that almost died but he said it wasn't. You really didn't know he was there."

"I'm not in his pack and this is literally the first I'm hearing of all this."

"Just because you keep saying you're not in his pack doesn't mean there isn't some kind of weird primal thing going on there. He talked about you broadcasting your feelings and stuff. You're obviously linked."

"Why'd you tell him he had a nice face?"

Mitch pushes his shoulders up to his ears and shakes his head. "I don't know because he has a nice face? He was being nice! You try having Auston Matthews be really nice to you and touch your wounds and make them not hurt and stuff and tell me you wouldn't say something equally vague and stupid." Mitch takes a bite of his apple and throws it back down on the tray. It's mealy and soft inside. He spits out what's in his mouth into his napkin and then tries to wipe the taste of it off his tongue. "Why didn't you tell me about the mojo?"

Willy scrunches his face up and shrugs. "I don't know. I've only ever done it for dogs at the clinic. I didn't even think about people. It seemed weird to be like, 'Hey, I can take away pain from dying dogs. Want to come watch me get choked up while I do it?' I mean, that's a weird thing to tell somebody."

"I will give you that." Mitch finishes his burrito and chugs half of his bottle of water. He sticks his arms out toward Willy. "Try it."

"What? No. We're at school."

"Come on! You're wearing long sleeves and I'm in pain." Mitch frowns, pouting his lower lip. "Lots of pain."

"I know you're not in that much pain because I can smell the Vicodin coming off you."

"Auston says you're terrible at identifying scents, so I don't believe that. If you don't try you'll never know."

"I don't want to hold hands with you in the cafeteria, dude."

"We can go to the library. Come on."

"I don't want to hold hands with you in the library either."

"Well, it'll look a lot worse if we're in the locker room. Do you want it to look like a precursor to having sex at school?"

"You are the worst best friend."

"You never visited me in the hospital!"

Willy puts his backpack over one shoulder and picks up his lunch tray. "Fine."

---

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fatfitallie · 5 years

Text

Mitch is on his back on hard-packed dirt. He's cold and there are leaves stuck to his neck and there's a four inch gash in his side that he thinks he can feel his ribs through. There's so much blood around him he feels like he's floating on a pond and everything is so much dimmer above him than it was a minute ago, which is saying something because he's in the dark center of the forest in the middle of the night. And the worst of it is that he's alone, totally alone with the smell of his own blood drowning him and the soft side of him run through by a tree.

He should be angry at Willy. He should be angry at Auston. Or Naz. He should be so angry, unbelievably angry -- at anyone really, anyone to blame this on. This being the fact that he's actually going to bleed to death on the ground in the forest with wet leaves stuck to his neck and mud splattered across the front of him. Or he should be angry at himself, furious, because he wanted to see a dead body. Because he dragged his best friend into the woods and he ended up a werewolf and Mitch ended up in constant mortal danger. But he's not angry, he's just tired and sad and maybe scared, but that part kind of feels like it's slipping away along with the light.

The worst part, he thinks, is that he wouldn't change any of it. That he'd make all the same decisions, that he'd run into the woods again and again.

As his eyes slip shut, the last thing he thinks is, "This is going to kill my Patty."

---

The first thing Mitch thinks when his eyes open again is, "What?" He blinks a few times, staring into his Patty's face and trying to understand what he's saying. "I'm so glad you're awake. Are you in some sort of relationship with Auston Matthews?" Mitch understands the words, but the sentence doesn't make any more sense than it did the first time.

"I don't understand that sentence." Mitch tries to shake his head to clear it, but he regrets it immediately. Everything is spinning. "I'm in the hospital, right?"

"Yes and I'm very glad you're awake and alive and I'd hug you but you still have a massive healing wound in your side that I don't particularly want to upset." His Patty pauses for just a second. "I'm not comfortable with you dating him."

"Patty, it's 2012, you can't be homophobic."

"I'm not and you know it." His Patty rubs at his chin. "I'm not comfortable with you dating an adult who's had such serious issues with the law. With me. I'm the law." He shrugs a little. "Also, it's 2013."

Mitch feels his eyes go wide because, Jesus Christ, he's been out for weeks and that's not the first thing his Patty mentions? "What?!"

"I'm just kidding. Answer the question."

"Jesus, can I have a minute? I just friggin' time traveled." Mitch loves his Patty and he's really grateful to be alive and awake and all, but Christ. "I don't have any relationship with Auston? Except that sometimes we're in the same room. Or vehicle. Or forest, I guess. Are you asking me this right now because you think I'm too disoriented to lie?"

"Yes." Mitch watches his Patty's face shift through phases -- confused to thoughtful to kind of constipated to confused and finally a loosely resigned exhaustion -- and he hates how much extra worry he's caused, how different he used to look, younger.

Mitch swallows, throat scratching. He's been asleep for days at least. His mouth tastes like sewage. "Is there a reason you're asking?"

"He brought you to the hospital -- carried you, I should specify -- and he's been here almost every day you've been out. Which was four, by the way. I'm curious, is all. Fatherly curiosity. Concern."

Mitch rubs his eyes, grimacing at the drag of crust around them. "This is disgusting. Can I shower? What day is it? What time is it?" Mitch moves to sit up and feels every ounce of energy he'd had a second ago drain out of him through the bandaged gash in his side. "Oh. This feels very bad." He presses his palm to it and the pressure causes a wave of nausea that feels like it comes from his feet. "I hate everything, oh god."

His Patty puts his hand on Mitch' back and holds a kidney bean shaped dish in front of him. "It's mostly the morphine."

Mitch swallows hard and pushes the barf bowl away. "I'm going to not try to sit up again for a while. Maybe ever."

"I'm going out in the hall to check my messages. Jake took my cell phone away from me because she said it was disturbing your rest. I'll be right back."

Mitch closes his eyes for a second and tries to focus on the heat radiating from the gash in his side. Being thrown really far by an Alpha sucked, but taking a ragged tree branch to the ribs was way, way worse. And stupid. Present and active in a fight with half a dozen werewolves and he gets taken out by a tree.

"You're healing fast."

Auston's voice is just startling enough to make Mitch jerk up, eyes popping open. The nausea hits him again and his head starts to spin. "I'm going to throw up. On you."

"Healing, but not feeling great."

"Apparently exposing your ribs to the elements has a really serious impact on your health."

"Showing up unarmed to a territorial pissing contest between werewolves can do that too."

"Oh man, is that literal? Do you mark your territory between training and brooding? That's so gross, man. I hang out in those woods."

If Mitch didn't know better, he'd say Auston almost laughed. "Trade secret. I could tell you, but then I'd have to disembowel you."

Mitch jazz hands a little. "Too late!" He regrets his enthusiasm immediately. "Thanks for not letting me die in the forest."

"I didn't think your Patty would back off so easily if it was you dead out there."

"Wise." Mitch can't help the quirk at the edge of his mouth. "Have you been hanging out here while I was unconscious to further elude suspicion? Or does Auston Matthews... dare I say it? Care?"

Auston responds with his usual blank stare and a half-shrug. "The pack's backed off. It might just be for now. I wanted you to know. Willy punched the Alpha in the face for throwing you into the tree."

"I guess that gives him another three months of best friend title." Mitch grunts and tries to shift in the bed. It hurts. "After that though, we are over. This is ultimately his fault and he should be punished for it."

"Is revoking your friendship really punishment?"

Mitch rolls his eyes. "You should try stand-up."

Mitch' Patty comes through the door, eyes still on his phone. "I've got to head down to the station, but I'll call you when I get home and I'll be here in the morning, okay?" He almost walks into Auston. "Oh. Auston."

"Marleau. I'll leave you two to it. Feel better, Mitch."

Mitch watches his Patty reach out and grip Auston's shoulder. "I'm heading out. Why don't you keep Mitch company 'til visiting hours are over. I'm sure he'd appreciate it."

Mitch feels his eyes go uncontrollably wide. Even Auston's expression seems to flutter for a second before steeling again. "Sure. Happy to."

Mitch does not understand at all what is happening in front of him, but he's been awake for like twenty minutes, so he's not exactly on his game. His Patty steps over and squeezes his shoulder. "I'm glad you're awake. You're looking better already. Make sure you get some sleep, so maybe they'll let you out of here tomorrow."

Mitch swallows against the lump in his throat and nods. "Thanks, Patty."

As soon as he's disappeared through the door, Mitch turns to Auston. "Feel better? Who are you?"

"I can't read him like I can most people. His heart's quiet."

"He has some issues with it. I'd have never imagined there'd ever be a reason to be grateful for that before."

Auston shifts his weight from foot to foot. It's almost imperceptible, but Mitch can see the way his muscles flex as he does it. It's shockingly human. "It's strong. You shouldn't worry."

"I'm not, like, totally comfortable with you making commentary on the fitness of my Patty's heart, but thanks?"

Auston nods and falls quiet again, still shifting so slightly.

"Jesus, will you sit down?! You're making me nervous as hell. I'm injured! And nauseous." Mitch groans. "I'm sure having morphine is better than not having morphine, but my stomach really disagrees. I'm so nauseous."

Auston settles in the chair next to Mitch' bed and leans over toward him. He holds his hand out, palm up. "Give me your hand."

"My Patty asked you to keep me company, not court me like a Jane Austen heroine."

Auston tilts his head and blinks slowly, pushing his hand closer to Mitch. Mitch stares stares at it for longer than Auston apparently appreciates and he barks out a loud "Mitch!"

"Okay, sorry, handholding, okay!" Mitch drops his hand tentatively into Auston's, their palms settling together. "This is so forward of you, Heathcliff!"

Auston closes his other hand over Mitch' and closes his eyes. "That's a Bronte, not Austen."

Mitch suddenly feels very warm and very sleepy. It's like the fire in his wound is glowing bright and rushing outward through his whole body, leveling out the pain. He looks down at Auston's arms and there are black streaks running up along the lines of his veins straight from Mitch' hand. "Are you ok--"

"Shut up, Mitch."

Mitch closes his eyes and lets Auston do his werewolf magic, whatever it is, lets himself sink into bed, warm and... safe? He feels really safe. And hungry. His stomach is calm and it's making him want to eat a cheeseburger. Or a steak. A really rare steak. Mitch grimaces. He doesn't like rare meat. "Are you rubbing werewolf magic on me?"

"Shut up, Mitch."

Mitch closes his eyes again and thinks about eating anything other than red meat. Spaghetti. Hawaiian pizza. Chocolate chip cookies and milk. But it's futile and he keeps ending up with a mostly raw steak between his canines.

When the pressure of Auston's hands on his finally disappears, he opens his eyes to Auston settling back in the chair looking a little paler and more tired than he did when Mitch closed his eyes. Mitch feels warm and loose and exhausted and happy. His hand is bright pink and he can feel the flush in his cheeks. "It's nauseated. I meant nauseated."

Auston's eyes are closed, his palms flat against his belly. "Hmm?"

"Nauseous means to cause nausea. I'm nauseated, not nauseous."

"I don't know, your incessant chatter kind of turns my stomach."

Mitch laughs. He can't help himself. He feels like he's on drugs, the good kind that make him happy and forgetful. "That's rude." Mitch turns toward Auston suddenly. "What did you do to me? Am I a wolf? Did you change me?"

Auston shakes his head. "Are you bleeding?"

Mitch does a quick check of his limbs. "No. Well, maybe a little, but that's a preexisting condition."

"I didn't change you. I just took some of the pain."

"Thanks." Mitch is only quiet for a beat. His head is foggy and he's kind of confused. "Wait, what? Are you hurt now?"

"No. Not really. It sort of feels like the end of a hangover actually, just for a few minutes. It's exhausting."

"You can take pain?"

"Yeah. I can't help you heal, but I thought it'd take the edge off the drugs."

"I think it made them stronger." Mitch holds his hand up. It's blurrier than it should be. He should definitely have someone check on that.

"It's euphoria. Draining the pain confuses your chemical processes. Your body still thinks it should be releasing a ton of chemicals for pain management, but there's actually not that much pain to manage. Plus you're on a pretty massive dose of morphine. I can smell it on you. You stink."

"You're so nice." Mitch grins. "Euphoria is so nice."

"Willy never told you he could do it?"

"Willy is an idiot."

Auston actually does smile then, Mitch is sure of it, and it's a nice smile, kind of soft and sleepy, and it lasts just long enough for Mitch to notice the shape of at least four of Auston's teeth. "You have nice teeth."

"You should sleep."

"They're so white. That seems counterintuitive to your lifestyle."

"I got an apartment. I keep a toothbrush there."

"You're almost talkative when you're tired."

"You're talkative even when you're half-dead. You mumbled the entire way to the hospital. Bleeding out on my favorite jacket and you wouldn't shut the hell up."

"Yeah?" Mitch has never heard Auston speak so many consecutive words before. He wasn't sure he had this big of a vocabulary. Or a favorite jacket. Mitch kind of figured there was just the one and a whole closet full of black t-shirts. "What'd I say?"

"You kept threatening to kick the tree's ass. And then you said you were going to carve your name into it, so it would remember you."

"At least you knew I wasn't dead yet?"

"I could hear your heart, I didn't need your mouth."

"That's weird. Your life is weird."

Auston shrugs, eyes still closed, body sunk into the chair. "All I've ever known."

Mitch freezes because those four words are the single most personal thing that Auston has revealed to him ever in the time he's known him. Auston is being nice and talking and he hasn't even threatened to hurt Mitch in the entire time he's been at the hospital. Mitch remembers what his Patty said, that Auston had carried him all that way and been there almost every day. "You're nice."

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"No, but I am being charitable. It's the euphoria. But you carried me to the hospital and you waited here for me to wake up. And then you made it not hurt so much. You're nice. Thanks."

Auston waves him off. "Self-preservation is the ultimate motivator."

"That's just the wolf. Auston Matthews is nice. You're probably a hugger deep down inside of that male-model-from-hell body. A big, giant hugger. I bet you like cartoons. I love cartoons."

Mitch watches Auston palm his forehead and presses his lips together. Mitch is amazed. That's practically animated for Auston. "Mitch?"

Mitch has just settled back into his pillows, arms tucked under the covers like he likes and his eyes slipping closed every time he thinks about keeping them open. "Yeah?"

"Shut up and go to sleep."

---

They don't let Mitch out of the hospital the next day, but the one after and if he thought he felt terrible when he was in the hospital with a morphine drip and catheter, he was so wrong because being home in bed with no catheter -- thank god -- and a Vicodin prescription that his Patty is doling out with the exact tightfisted caution he'd expect is somehow so much worse.

First, he has to do homework and second, no one is there to bring him his meals on a little tray with jello for dessert, and third, he isn't on morphine anymore. He'd trade his slow groaning trek to the bathroom every two hours for the catheter easily and when he gives up trying to get to the kitchen less than ten feet from the stairs he misses Willy's mom so much he almost starts crying. He was wrong about everything before: this is the worst.

He's laying face down on his bed, half-dressed in basketball shorts and socks, exhausted from changing his bandages and starving. His Patty had told him he'd come home at lunch to feed him and change the dressing, but Mitch had told him, "No, no, it's fine. I feel fine. I can manage." because Mitch couldn't stand the guilt of making him miss more work when he was finally back and settled in.

He smells Auston before he hears him and that's disturbing enough because he doesn't wear cologne, this is just Auston and Mitch doesn't understand why he recognizes it so easily. Regardless, it's nice to not be totally startled for once when Auston appears in his bedroom.

Mitch' face is still buried in the pillow, so his words are muffled. "It's really creepy that you can get in here so effortlessly."

"I wanted to check on you. Your Patty didn't come home at lunch."

Mitch turns his head on the pillow to look at Auston. He's touching stuff on the desk and it makes Mitch nervous. "There's a lot I'd like to ask about why you know he was going to and how you always know stuff and why you are the creepiest of all creeps but I feel very bad right now and don't want to work that hard."

"Then shut up."

"I've seen you more than I've seen Willy. That's weird."

"Kappy called. She's not coming back for a while still. He's sulking."

"I can't believe you're admitting to knowing that."

"We're having meetings. He broadcasts."

"The Alpha pack?"

Auston shrugs. "They haven't crossed any more lines. Sid and Geno haven't asked for help. They're just circling."

Mitch rubs his head against his pillow. He's in a lot more pain than he really wants to address and the friction distracts him. "It'll be bad eventually." It's not a question.

"Eventually."

Auston settles in Mitch' desk chair, legs outstretched, half-spinning. Back and forth, back and forth. Mitch wants to throw up a little bit.

"You're sick." Auston leans forward a little. "You haven't eaten."

"I had a fight with the stairs. They won. Effortlessly."

Auston disappears into the house and Mitch settles his face back into his pillow. If Auston brings him food he's... going to be really surprised but also eat the hell out of it.

Auston's gone long enough that he has to shake Mitch awake, so gently it's kind of disarming. Mitch looks up into his face, eyes bleary. "Sit up, Mitch." Auston pauses. "Can you?"

Mitch starts to shift over, but gives up immediately. "It does not feel like it, no."

Auston sets something down on Mitch' bedside, then his hands are closing on Mitch' sides, guiding him and lifting and then suddenly Mitch' is settled against his pillows with a mug of soup in his hand and he already feels so much better he can't believe it.

Auston's back at Mitch' desk, flipping through papers and generally harassing Mitch' stuff and it's making him kind of nervous because there might be secret stuff or embarrassing stuff or Auston might turn on the computer and Mitch is pretty sure the last thing he had open was porn and maybe he and Auston are almost friends now, but there are some things that are just private. But he also has warm tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich because apparently Auston is actually the best.

"You did werewolf stuff. You pain drained me, didn't you?"

"Just a little, so you could eat."

"It makes me very fuzzy."

"I know, I keep hoping it'll shut you up."

"Keep hope alive."

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