Whumpay 2026 Day 1- Accidentally hurting a friend, PTSD
(This is based on/a fanfic of the Mage in a Wolf Pack series over on ao3. Defintely go check it out, I love it alot, but all you need to know for this is Jaime is a mage who was enslaved by and had his magic controlled by werewolf hunters, and he was eventually rescued by a werewolf pack. And in this, Jaime and Dimitri are both ambiguously young children.)
CW: a bit of suicidal ideation/expecting to die/negotiating for death, references of child abuse
"No, no, no, Dima, wake up wake up wake up!" Jaime frantically shook the wolf pup's shoulder. He hadn't meant to, really, he hadn't, he was just surprised.
Dimitri had been on a bit of a pouncing kick recently. "Hunting practice," he called it. He would stalk the adults of the pack in his wolf form, tail wagging furiously, until "they least expected it," when he would pounce, in all of his fluffy glory.
Jaime had watched nearly every adult in the pack be ambushed like this over the past week, but he never expected to fall victim, too. He thought Dimitri would stick to attacking the grown-ups. But no matter what he thought, Dimitri pounced on him, when he least expected it. And when he startled, he unleashed a massive surge of his newly freed magic, straight into Dimitri's chest.
He was out cold. No matter how much Jaime shook him, he was left holding a limp bundle of fur.
Several bolts of fear paralyzed him at the same moment. One, Dimitri is dead. Two, Jaime killed him. Three, the pack will kill him for this.
Four. They won't.
Surely they have a mage collar they could lock around his neck for the rest of his pitiful life. And he'd deserve it! He proved that he couldn't be trusted to use his magic not to hurt people. He'd killed one of their pups! He killed his best friend! The first person in the world to call Jaime a friend, and he killed him.
His begging for Dimitri to wake up had morphed into wet apologies, his eyes were blurring from tears, and breathing was quickly becoming more effort than it was worth, when he finally had one moment of clarity.
Ash can fix this.
Even if Ash couldn't bring people back to life (which Jaime wouldn't put outside of his abilities), he had let Jaime read his healer books. The first step was to asses the problem, and check for breathing.
Check for breathing.
Gods, how could he have forgotten!
Dimitri was breathing, however weakly, it was steady. Certainly more steady than Jaime's. Thank the gods. Thank Ash.
Next step: find a qualified healer, if at all possible.
It should be. Ash should be in the healer's cabin. Even if finding an adult means Jaime is kissing his freedom goodbye, he has to try. For Dima. Jaime stood on shaking legs, Dimitri cradled in his arms, and made his way towards his damnation, and (hopefully) Dimitri's salvation.
~~~
Ash was minding his own business, taking stock of what herbs he would need to go out to gather soon, with the changing of the seasons making new plants available, when his quiet morning was shattered by a distraught pup.
Well, technically the baby mage wasn't a pup, but as long as his puppy eyes were as effective as they were, Ash would refer to him as such.
"Ash!" was all he could make out through sniffles and sobs, so he put his notes down and rushed out of the back storage room, rather than shouting to the mage to direct him back.
"What—" he started, as he was interrupted by a flurry of cut-off explanations, and his eyes landed on a bundle of pup in the mages arms.
"Dimitri— I didn't mean to, I don't— He scared me!" Jaime stuttered. He took a steadying breath, and mumbled, "He's not dead. But I don't know what to do ."
"Ok," Ash started, trying to push past the innate dread at a mage holding such a still pup, both reeking of magic. He pushed it away. This was a child in his care, who came to him for help after an accident. Jaime trusted him to be able to help. "Ok. Put him on the bed."
Jamie did so, and ran a hand along Dimitri's back, straightening out the fur there.
"What happened?" Ash asked trying to strike a balance with the Professional Healer voice he wanted to fall back to in moments like this, and a softer voice to comfort the crying child. He wasn't sure if he managed, but either way, he needed the information that only Jaime had before he would know how to help.
"I was— Dima pounced on me. I— I wasn't expecting it, and, and—" he sniffled, hard, and wiped his nose across his whole hand. "I hit him with my magic, and I thought he was dead!" The last part was just barely understandable through the sobs.
"Alright, well, he's not, but you figured that out," Ash said, starting to feel for physical injuries under the fur. There was nothing immediately obvious. Maybe smelling salts would wake the pup up, and he could tell Ash what the problem was.
As Ash was considering this, Jaime steeled himself. "Can I at least see if Dima is going to be ok before you kill me?"
Ash's hands froze on Dimitri's head as his own whipped around to the child behind him. "What?"
Jaime took a shaky breath, some of his earlier resolve leaving him. "I know I have to die because I hurt one of your packs pups," he started, tears welling up in his eyes, "But I just want to know he'll be ok first." He looked like he might have wanted to wipe his nose on his hand again, but both were clenched into tight fists at his sides.
Ash's brain had stopped communicating with his mouth. For a small eternity, he couldn't say anything to this child who was so resigned to his own assumed death. Eventually, he managed to get out a breathless,"Kid. No one's going to kill you."
Somehow, that was the wrong thing to say. The fear and resignation melted from the mage's face, which might have been good, if it had been replaced with relief. Or any emotion. What was left instead, a was a completely blank face, and a stare into the middle distance.
As concerning as that reaction was, Ash was working on a time crunch with the other hurt child. He didn't want Dimitri to remain unconscious for any longer. Shaking himself, keeping his inner wolf from snarling in frustration at being left to deal with this completely unprepared and alone, he turned to the cabinet and got the smelling salts.
Wafting them under Dimitri's snout did get the pup to stir. "Dima," Ash said softly, "can you shift back so you can talk to me?" If the answer was years, he'd soon have more answers, and it if it was no, he'd know at least one problem for sure. But fortunately, the wolf pup's fur began to recede, leaving a disheveled young boy on the bed. "How are you feeling?"
Dimitri groaned, and only thanks to his wolf hearing and reflexes was Ash able to get a bowl under his head before he lost his breakfast.
~~~
After getting the poor concussed prankster (because no, Ash had not forgotten that this whole mess only started because Dimitri tried to scare a severely traumatized, brand new pack mate) settled, Ash could finally turn his attention to said traumatized pack mate.
Still mostly unresponsive, Ash guided Jaime to sit in the chair next to Dimitri's bed. Keeping up his soft, caring for nervous patients voice, Ash said, "Jaime."
As soon as Jaime was able to bring his eyes up to Ash's face, he continued, "Can you tell me why you think I'm going to kill you?"
Jaime cleared his throat. "I hurt one of the pups." Some clarity was returning to his eyes. He brought a hand up to his neck. "Please. Please…" He trailed off, and based on the turn in their earlier conversation that had led to this one, Ash had no idea what Jaime might be trying to ask for.
"Please what, pup?"
There was a slight furrow in Jaime's brow at the endearment. "Please don't collar me again."
"What?" Jaime had been collared? It made sense, but Ash had assumed that he was simply young enough that the hunters had been able to... persuade him to help them using simpler methods. Ash was under no illusion that Jaime had been with the hunters willingly (the scars he had seen when the pack had first brought him back from the hunter's camp were enough to convince him of that), but to collar a child. He had heard the sensation of being cut off from one's magic was painful. Disorienting. Like loosing a sense. Like never being able to draw a full breath.
His face must have been making some expression without his permission, because Jaime started speaking, pleading, really, again, faster.
"I know I'm more useful to your pack alive, and you really can't let my magic stay loose, it's too dangerous, but please, sir, please, don't let them collar me again. Maybe you can kill me, you can say it was an accident, please, sir, you're so nice, please—"
"Jaime." The breathless begging cut off with a single word. "No one's going to hurt you—"
"Please!"
"And that includes collaring you!" Ash raised his voice to cut off any more begging for specifically Ash to kill a child. "Dimitri is ok. He will make a full recovery. He is just a little battered, but he will be alright."
Jaime let out a sigh of relief.
"And Jaime." Ash knelt down to be level with the chair. "You are one of the packs pups now."
Jaime's mouth fell open, disbelieving.
"You seem to understand that we take the safety of our pups extremely seriously, but one key detail you appear to have missed is that that includes you now."
It was clear Jaime didn't fully believe him yet. That was alright. They had time, and Ash could recruit some help to convince him. For now though—
"Would you like to say something to Dimitri?"
The young mage nodded. He was a good kid. Now Ash just had to convince him that.