thisismybar | Hayley

"I want to do whatever is best for you," he answered, calm and steady. "If that's me waiting here, I'll wait here. If it's something else, I'll do that."

He wasn't quite as calm as he seemed, but he was steady, oddly enough. This was about her. He was okay with whatever at least didn't make it worse.

She worried at her lower lip, uncertain about what was better for her. "I...honestly don't know. This is still so...new for me." Him being willing to be there.

"Did what we did last time work? Well enough, anyway?" They were both feeling their way about, it seemed.

She shivered a little as the first flicker of pain ran through her.

"Yeah. I mean, once you really...stuck around after." She'd been terrified he wouldn't be able to handle it, actually watching her change, not and still see her as herself.

He grimaced, just a bit and in sympathy. "Then let's stick with what we know works. If you need a change, you can tell me later," he said, very quietly.

"Okay," she said with a half smile. "I guess we're doing this here..." She broke off whimpering a little, and made herself get up. It hurt, but she forced herself through the pain, pulling off her clothes quickly and moving away from the fire. The last thing she needed to do was fall in actual flames.

He got up and very nearly helped with the clothes, when he realized how close to the edge they'd pushed it. He also got the chairs well out of the way, as well as the remains of food. Then he simply stayed close, and stayed quiet.

She was aware that he was there, but it really was a periphery thing when the change hit. Every time she was thankful that it got faster as she got older. Not easier, but at least it was over sooner. It always was hard to hold on to herself in the midst of it. She tried to stay her, hold on to the awareness, but it shifted out of her grasp. It didn't last more than three minutes, though it felt like a lifetime, and the wolf was there, growling a little, shaking herself off and breathing hard. Not growling at Ric, really, but she clearly wasn't overly happy with the transition process, either.

Ric stayed a bit away from the fire, and well away from her, so she wouldn't associate him as part of the pain or see him as a threat, but crouched down and held his hands out to her. Very quiet, very seemingly calm, but dear god her distress almost hurt him. "It's okay."

She turned at the sound of his voice, spun low and crouched down, more defensive than anything, but his scent hit right after his voice and she straightened, moving toward him warily to sniff at his outstretched hand with a little whine. It hurt and she was happy to see him, but it hurt.

Apparently familiarity meant he wasn't quite the immediate distraction he was before.

He waited for her to sniff at his hand before he settled back on one heel. He didn't try to pet her, just kept his position open so she could settle as she wanted, in his lap or beside him, or somewhere else entirely. Letting her recover without being manhandled seemed important. "I know. I'm sorry."

In his lap sounded lovely, really, but she was a little too big for that. She did scoot closer and lay down against him with her head on his knee, though. Leaning into him, she licked lightly at his hand, just a nuzzling sort of greeting, before sighing. She'd be fine in a minute and ready to play, but she was apparently taking a second to snuggle first.

As far as Ric was concerned, this very much counted as her in his lap. He waited for her to settle, then responded to her nuzzling by lifting a hand to very lightly, gently, stroke his fingers over her fur. Trying to be soothing and reassuring, rather than anything else. Barely there, really, since she hurt.

She followed his hand, working to get her head more against him, feeling better and wanting more pets. Still more quiet than last time, when it had been so exciting to have a human there. Not that she wasn't totally happy to see him again, but. Not so bouncy, yet. Give her time.

He didn't need her to be up and bouncing about. As she settled more, so did he, sitting flat on the ground rather than crouching. He gradually grew a bit heavier with his touch, but only a bit. He was still treating her gently, and carefully, and would likely continue to do so. He'd certainly pet and snuggle for as long as she wanted.

She closed her eyes and let her healing finish up and make her feel better, while his touch was soothing and warm and made her feel safe. Eventually she pulled back and sat up a little, tilting her head to look at him, then leaned in and licked his cheek--tongue not quite so dry as that of a cat, but nowhere near as slobbery as a dog's either.

And just a little rough. It made him smile. "You're welcome," he said, quietly, and ran his hand over her fur, one more time. He got back into a crouch, from there. "You ready to go, or you want to hang out here and be quiet a little longer?" He was talking to the wolf just like Hayley - maybe a little more simply- but it was as much for his benefit as her's. Probably more for his, actually.

She didn't mind him talking, even if she only understood a bit of it. He had a nice voice, especially when he kept it quiet like that. She bumped her head into his shoulder lightly, then stood up, shaking herself off with a little sound that was almost a growl, but mostly just expressing her discontent with having to spend any of her time healing.

He was getting pretty used to her vocalizations, and didn't really keep thinking every growl or grumble was an aggressive sound. He climbed to his feet when she stood and shook it off, pretty literally. "Give me a minute to stick a ball in my pocket," he said, even as he was ducking into the tent. "Then we can go do whatever you want."

Her ears perked at "ball," some vestige of the girl's knowledge supplying an image enough to intrigue her. The tent, however, intrigued her more. Usually when they'd gone out with a pack and had a campsite, they'd turned away from it, and nothing had drawn the wolves back before turning back.

So...she followed him. Poking her head in, she sniffed, then--catching mostly his and the girl's scent, she pushed in behind him curiously.

Ric had a moment of... not fear, but concern, when she followed him in. He could only hope that she didn't decide everything in there was some sort of toy, but if she did... well, he supposed there were worse things. He fished the hard, rubber ball out of his pack and held it up. "This is what I came in for. Do you want to sniff around, first?"

She completely ignored the ball for the moment--his pack was far more interesting and she nudged past him to bury her nose in it, sniffing and nosing through it to find out what was in there.

A change of clothes, mostly. Another ball or two. Flask with bourbon. Nothing unusual, he didn't think. "...What are you doing in there?" It was rhetorical. Like hell he was going to stop a wolf doing whatever the hell it wanted.

She kept nosing around in the pack, grabbing a ball with her teeth and pulling it out, shaking her head a little from where the bag had caught on her fur here and there. The ball was...odd feeling between her teeth and she couldn't quite figure out what to do with it, finally shaking her head a little harder and sending it flying.

She promptly had her nose back down Ric's bag.

Ric tilted his head the other direction, wondering what in the world - "There's no food in there...."

No idea what she was after, at all, but still not willing to argue with her about it. Anything in there, she could have. Nothing was important or valuable. Except maybe the alcohol. That was at the very bottom, though, and regardless of his status of physical addiction, he wasn't going to wrestle a wolf for his fix.

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