A Soft Place to land

16

Running away wasn't an option that Wolf would usually choose when being faced with dangerous situations- but as an adult with a stable job that could easily be taken away from him - he felt that he had no other choice. It was a little bit embarrassing, though, knowing that Gray witnessed him attempt to throw a miserable punch that did absolutely nothing to help their situation.

Unlike his 'golden age', that inner fight that he had when was was younger had diminished and his micro-biceps were no longer strong enough to properly land a punch that could knock that someone out on the first try. Not to mention, his balance was completely off, he was pretty much a joke at this this point. His punch had actually landed on the man's shoulder instead of his face..which was terrifying.

Absolutely terrifying.

And so, Wolf, in the spur of the moment, decided that there was no way in hell he could win a fight against this random shirtless man and had instead opted to go the next best route. Which, at that moment, was running away. As he busied himself with the task running away, he somehow accidentally grabbed Gray, pulling him along for the ride.

- That unfortunate story, was ultimately how the two of them ended up here; In a dingy convenience store at an ungodly hour while awkwardly having an impromptu staring contest.

Not very ideal for a late Sunday night, but what's done is done. Wolf just had to have enough patience to deal with it.

"Well, I- uh- I had to run away. If I didn't I would've beat that fucker half to death and the police would've come running- reckless shit like that could get me arrested y'know." Wolf responded, averting his eyes at his own little bluff.

He wasn't one to bluff either, but with his damaged pride, he couldn't just outright say that he had no chance against him, especially not to someone like Gray. But as he looked back to Gray to see his (hopefully convinced) face, he saw him grimace a little bit before responding.

",, Sure." Gray barely sounded genuine and just continued to stare into his soul like he was nothing but trash.

After a couple more awkward moments, Wolf decided to just get on with it and prepare some 'diy' cotton balls out of alcohol-soaked tissues.

"Anyways-" Wolf spoke up. "You should probably get patched up, you look like shit."

He slid the plastic bag over to Gray and took his (thankfully intact) glasses off his face for better access to the scratches on his face that he managed to numb with some painkillers that he had in his semi-soaked work bag. (Thank god that he decided to buy the waterproof kind just in case, it was a real lifesaver.)

And, paying no attention to Gray who was also treating his own wounds, he took one of his makeshift alcohol tissue-balls and attempted to dab it onto his wound, biting his cheek every now and then to prevent him from cursing at the burning sting.

"You're going to end up hurting yourself more if you keep on jabbing it into your face like that." Gray stated from the other side of the table, causing Wolf to halt mid-way.

"I-Excuse me?"

"I said, stop jabbing it into your face."

Gray sighed and stood from his chair to join Wolf with his extra tissues. Pulling up another chair from the closest table to sit directly in front of him, he tugged Wolf's arm down by his sleeve.

"Here-" Cupping his face with one hand to keep still, Gray brought a clean tissue-ball right over Wolf's forehead. And, as he waited for Gray to come sweeping down with burning alcohol, he shut his eyes.But instead of feeling the same burning sensation like he had last time, he only felt a slight sting on the surface of his cuts.

It was actually pretty soothing, considering that Wolf felt like he's just been thrown into the washing machine five times- being tended to was pretty nice. Not that he'd ever say that out loud that is.

After Gray finished thoroughly cleaning up all the blood and the scratches on Wolf's face, he turned back to sift through the plastic bag in search of bandaids. And while he was doing that, Wolf was finally able to open his eyes; only to welcome the sight of Gray's thin back and arms bending over just opposite from him- and god, it was a sight.

(Definitely not in a good way though.)

Unlike earlier, Gray didn't have his oversized hoodie on over his damp white T-shirt, and so Wolf could see everything.

More bruises, more hickeys, and more wounds littering his shoulders.

But the largest, most noticeable injury that he somehow hadn't noticed until now, were the two large hand-shaped bruises wrapped around Gray's neck.