Winter and Claus (title TBD)
Winter sat awkwardly, looking down at his bandaged hands where they sat stiffly. His throat felt raw from all of the crying he had done the night before. His body ached everywhere as he sat on the plush surface. His mind wandered aimlessly, thinking about his house in the walls and how he longed to return to the cozy place. Yeah it wasn’t neat and tidy like the human’s house, and sure he didn’t always have a steady food supply, but at least there he was safe, free.
The borrower looked up sadly to the human who had occupied himself with rearranging the colored pencils into rainbow order, a task that Winter found silly. What was the point of such a task? Was this human so completely privileged that the color organization of his pencils was something to fret over?
Winter scoffed quietly to himself, deciding not to jab at the humans odd habits, I wasn’t worth the risk of getting hurt again.
“Uhm….” Winter muttered quietly, hoping the human would look up. Claus’s eyes met Winters but his posture remained the same as he continued his task. “M-may I have something to drink?” He said eyes diverting, feeling the scrutinizing gaze he was under.
The human nodded and got up to leave. Once he left Winter relaxed, letting out a breath he had been unconsciously holding in. Claus was…strange, not like any other human that Winter had seen. Of course this may have been because this was the first human who Winter had actually *met*. Winter frowned at the thought.
This human didn’t make any sense, he had acted concerned when Winter had first been coming into consciousness, but after what winter thought to be a good ice breaking conversation he clammed up and preoccupied himself with menial tasks. Now he acted like he first had, closed off and cold. At least he wasn’t manhandling Winter like before, but it was unnerving and frankly just weird now.
Winter assumed he wouldn’t be let go, based on the humans past words and actions. His hope was to gain the human’s trust enough to be allowed to leave, and then hope to move away. But then Claus shut winter out the second that he had started to see a semi decent side of the human.
The door to the humans room opened and Claus walked back in with a plastic water bottle in hand. He slumped down into the chair in front of winter and opened the bottle, using the cap of it as a bowl and poured water into it, setting it down next to the bedridden borrower.
Winter looked at it, mentally calculating how he would pick it up with his injured hands.
After a moment the human spoke with an unreadable tone “a-aren’t you going to like…drink?” He muttered, a crack of concern on his face suddenly masked with the usual RBF.
Winter’s face grew red with fluster. “I-i can’t” *dumbass* he mentally added. He lifted his hands up to show their bandaged state.
the momentary jab of confidence that Winter had felt immediately dropped to fear as the human’s hand appeared inches from his face. A sharp whimper escaped winter as he held his arms guarding his head bracingly, before realizing the human had the bottle cap pinched between two fingers
“O-oh-“ winter muttered as he sat up, trembling as he lowered his head into the water, grey eyes flashing up momentarily to be sure of the humans intentions before drinking. The water was refreshing, quenching the borrower's ravenous thirst. His sore throat was soothed by the refreshing ice water.
He pulled away, and Claus took that as his queue to pull away “t-thank you” winter muttered, still shaken from the proximity. The borrower curled his legs to his chest and allowed his chin to rest on his knees.
The human chewed on his bottom lip before awkwardly attempting to give a friendly smile. Winter seemed to unclench at the human’s pathetic attempt to seem non threatening. Maybe he wasn’t so bad.
The silence was deafening, winter didn’t know what to say, or do. He just sat there, awkward as ever as the human continued his task from before, not-so-subtly glancing up at winter with more curiosity this time.
Claus cleared his throat “so…uhm….” He racked his brain for conversation starters, and of course his brain gave him the worst prompt “why were you looking at my homework?”
Winter whimpered and looked down, remembering their first meeting. Could it even be called a meeting? For winter it was the most traumatic event of his life. He cleared his throat and muttered out ”i-uh…i thought it was interesting…”
claus’s face scrunched up with distaste, and winter flinched back, thinking he had angered the human. Maybe it was the kind of action humans looked down upon. After all, humans got offended at the strangest things. Winter had noticed the man of the house- claus’s father- often got angry when a certain finger was shown to him, and he spoke specific words that apparently had more significance than the others.
“How can you think the California gold rush is interesting?” Claus said with an incredulatory tone, snapping Winter out of his momentary train of thought.
Winter assumed that was what the writing topic had been about “i-uh” he felt shame, like he wasn’t supposed to enjoy the topic “i do like it…i dont get to read very often so…so i thought it was interesting” he mumbled.
claus looked down at the borrower, a twinge of guilt hiding under his indifferent expression. “Oh” he said awkwardly “uh..well i can tell you more about it…i-if your really that invested” he offered, averting his gaze.
Winter looked up and, for the first time since meeting the human, smiled “y-yeah I would really enjoy that”
The human looked down, lips parting slightly in awe at the adorable smile that had graced the borrower's face. A light pink dusted Claus's cheeks as his eyes widened. He jolted, clearing his throat as he stood up and shuffled around in his backpack “o-okay then” he muttered, tone gruff.
He sat back down in front of winter. The borrower noticed a small crease on the human’s face, like he was restraining a smile. The thought that the human might just be shy and socially awkward relieved winter. Dealing wit a socially awkward human was far better and more appealing than trying to deal with an angry cold human. Winter internally prayed that the human would keep this up and actually show emotions, but only time could tell.
Claus flipped through his notebook and found the page. He softly began to read to the borrower, stopping occasionally to explain little parts that winter didn’t understand. Something about just sitting there, together reading, it seemed so natural. The human had softened his posture, expression less guarded as he read.
Winter seemed to perk up more, asking questions and loosening his stance. He even scooted closer to see the pictures in the book, fascinated. His silvery grey eyes glimmered with curiosity as the mood improved.
In the middle of one of Claus’s explanations, a shout rang out from downstairs. Claus winced. “-ah- hold on one sec” he muttered, tone slightly wavering. The human walked over to his door and peeked through it, then jolted back and shut it, clicking the lock shut.
When he sat back down, winter noticed the subtle tremble in the humans hands, and a bead of sweat trickled along his neck. The human took a shaky breath “w-where were we?” He gulped nervously.
winter’s brow furrowed in confusion “uhm…the people set up camp along the river…” he muttered then spoke up “c-Claus are you…okay?” He asked, timidly looking up. He jolted in surprise when he noticed the humans violet gold eyed glossy with tears, his lip trembling.
Claus seemed to snap out of whatever mood he was in, jolting away from the borrower. “I-ah” he whimpered as he rubbed the tears from his eyes, looking away. Winter noticed the human’s face had turned bright red and his breathing shaky.
Winter didn’t really know what to do, he had never seen a human, or anyone really, in this kind of state. He froze up, trying to think of what he would want in this position “uh…d-do you want to tal-“
“no” Claus sad, a sharp tone cutting winter off. From what the borrower could gather, the human was bottling up his feelings. And winter had experience with doing that himself.
“Are-are you sure?” Winter asked, concerned. Hah, what a thought. He was concerned for the creature who he had been trained to fear for his whole life. How ironic.
“Just-just go…Go Away!” Claus said, his voice breaking with the obvious pain and confliction he was dealing with.
Winter stepped closer “Claus i-“
“Just GO AWAY!” The human shouted, loud enough to make the borrower shrink back, whimpering. The shout was enough to make winter give in to his own fear and flee. He ran back to the edge of the human's desk, shocked but glad that his hook still remained intact.
He looked back at Claus one last time before hooking the clasp to his harness and grappling down to safety.