Across the Wasteland

After hearing the kid mention that he might have a fever, Xavier sat up again before leaning over the kid once more. Placing the back of his hand over his forehead, like his mother used to do when he was a little and home sick with something, he felt how hot he was before grimacing. "Guess you do," he said, all at once not sure how to deal with a fever. "I don't think putting you on ice will help you right now," he said, trying to turn it into a joke. "But...I don't have any Tylenol or anything, but..." he sighed softly before saying, "Take my jacket. It'll be better than nothing, and tomorrow, I can go out and see if the rumors of Jacoby about a mile away are true..." For what must have been months now, Xavier had heard from his limited interaction with those who lived nearby that his closest neighbor was dead, but no one wanted to check his home out because...well, not everyone stayed as sane as Xavier in these times. But, with a bit of luck, he might have some medicine left behind, and the kid's fever wouldn't escalate into anything worse.
 
He however only shook his head "I can deal with it... It'll wear off if I just rest..." he said, his hair finally moving out of the way a little, allowing to see his closed eyes, and another scar over his left eye, long leashes and thin eyebrows, along with what looked like the mark of having been clawed on his forehead, his eyes closed at all times, too tired to open them even.
 
Noticing the scars, Xavier asked, "What gave you those?" Gesturing towards them, he frowned, hoping it was just some wolf or something, not from, and this is what he feared, his father. As far as he could remember, both his parents did nothing but love him, and it made his stomach tie itself in knots to think that a parent could hurt his son.

Once he got his answer, he nodded before saying, "You're obviously not fine...and if it gets worse, you could die." Leaving it at that, he began unzipping his jacket, offering it to the kid. "Just take it," he told him. "You need it more than I do..."
 
He opened his eyes, almost like two deep clear colored aquamarine jewels, one to be feared for the deep frown on his expression, but he didn't protest anymore, taking it and only placing it on top of himself.

"... My dad" he responded "Over my brow... he put a burning knife... He said I was being mean to him, so he burnt me. He left me out the whole night." he closed his eyes once more.
 
Xavier swallowed in the darkness, suddenly glad for dim lighting so that the kid couldn't see the undoubtedly sick expression on his face. "I'm sorry," he said, looking down. In truth, he hadn't known what to say. How does one react to something like that? "A kid like you doesn't deserve to be treated that way..." Sighing softly, he felt hos way to the other side of the sleeping bag, shivering without his jacket, which he had left at the kid's feet, just in case.

Lying back down, he found he was wide awake, no chance of sleeping save for a solid kick to his head. Sighing again, he crossed his arms behind his head, staring up at the dark, rounded ceiling of his tiny home, listening to the kid's breathing, a slight frown on his face.
 
He did fall asleep after a while, his body trembling at times, whimpering and heavily breathing, often clutching to the fur of his beast, who liked his face in hopes of making him feel better. It was easy to see that he was suffering, but it wasn't as easy to find a real expression to his face, much less any real emotion.

The last hours of the night passed and the sun came out in the sky behind the clouds, it was still snowing outside but not in a stormy way as it had been recently. The boy didn't wake up early, but when he did he sat up and pulled his wolf's ears, who only ran outside without any sort of warning.
 
Xavier was awoken by the movement of the wolf, shifting when it bolted out of his home. Surprisingly enough, he had fallen asleep, though he was feeling tired and groggy from not sleeping well. "Mmm," he moaned, rubbing his eyes as he sat up, stretching. "Feeling any better?" he asked, upon seeing the kid. Rolling his shoulders, he got to his feet, noticing his jacket on the ground. Pulling it on, he zipped it to his chin, shivering as the cold hit his cheeks.

Crawling out of his home, he preformed his morning ritual of thirty seconds of bitter coldness in the most sensitive spot on his body, relieved when he had zipped his pants back up. "Christ," he muttered, yawning again as he focused his gaze northwest, where a tiny patch of gray on the horizon indicated Jacoby's home, which was made out of more stone than anything. Hopefully, that crazy old bastard had some Tylenol or something for the kid's fever.
 
The younger one stared at the man before he left, and when he did, he only shrugged and pulled the sleeping bag over himself, shuddering a little and just going full fetal position under it, maintaining his hands close to his mouth and breathing into them to keep them warm. "..." He felt some sort of peace, being like this, despite the fact that he felt stupid being here when he wasn't wanted, besides that he felt a glint of happiness, being actually able to FEEL something for a change. This man had turned from a raging nervous chihuahua to a very kind person, which was something he was not expecting to begin with.
 
Xavier poked his head in a few minutes later, grabbing his knife. "I'm heading out. Come with me or stay here, it doesn't matter to me. Just don't leave, don't take anything, and don't do anything to get either of us killed." Leaving it at that, he left, not checking to see if the kid was following him or not. As the snow fell into his hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows, he started walking in the direction of the gray patch Jacoby lived in.

An hour passed and he still wasn't there. The new layer of snow hadn't yet hardened, so every time he put his foot down it would go through about eighteen inches of snow, and he would have to pull his leg free before moving again. When he finally got there, he paused to catch his breath, tired but hopeful that no one else had already looted the gray rectangle.
 
Walking past him, the boy's wolf announced itself, not heavy enough to break trough the snow the same way Xavier was, it just panted at him and stoped in front of him, pointing it's muzzle toward the area he had just passed trough, the damn animal could almost talk. Still, behind him, not much apart, the boy was following, walking easily on the path that the man he been marking until now, no complications on his walking, just wearing his coat and scarf, hands on his pockets.
 
Xavier sighed when he saw the kid before going to him, trying to go into his footsteps. "Don't say anything, alright? I don't know if he really is dead or not, but if he isn't, he'll probably try to kill us. If he is alive, just start running back." Turning from the kid, he started back, soon on the backside of the shelter. Heart in his throat, he began going around to the front, trying to make as little noise as possible so if the man was still alive, he wouldn't hear them. Brushing his hair out of his eyes as he approached the entrance, he took a deep breath before starting to crawl through, worried as to what he might find inside.
 
The boy didn't bother replying, he was only here to not have to wait, and because he didn't want Xavier to die now, having become his responsibility for having saved him, the younger male felt like he had to be close by now, even if her was sick at the moment. " ... " he just followed, his footsteps quiet and timed like a cat's or his wolf's, whom kept on sniffing around quietly and carefully.
 
Xavier walked into the shelter, and was met with a stagnant, dead smell. Not dead as in perished, but like it had been too still tortoise long. Making a quick glance that no one was in there, he frowned. Where was the old man? Shivering, he stood, having to stoop because of the low ceiling. Arranged on shelves Made of snow and ice were the old man's belongings: an old scarf, looking half-frozen, a couple packs of matches that were probably too wet to light, two long-expired cabs of peaches, and--behold!--a yellow medicine bottle. Picking g it up, he read the label. Not recognizing the name of it, he frowned before pocketing it anyways. In the corner was a threadbare blanket, not even a sleeping bag, but after picking it up, he found a hole in the icy ground, with two more bottles of medicine in there.

Letting a grin come to his face, he saw the familiar red label of Tylenol, he pocketed both of the bottles, not sire if they actually contained what the labels said. Grabbing the cans, he left the blanket and matches. Just as he was about to leave, he tripped over something. Glancing back at it, he gasped when he saw a skinny, perfectly preserved human hand.

"Oh, God," he said, before scrambling out of the shelter. Jacoby must have died in there, while the snows partly buried his body. Emerging outside, paler than ever, he said to the kid, "Let's head back...I don't wanna think about this place anymore..."
 
The boy didn't make a sound, again, but the wolf almost jumped when it's nose came across the old man, he kept sniffing inside, he took the piece of cloth, the scarf, and paced to the boy's side, whining. He only took the scarf and placed it on top of the one he already had, walking to follow Xavier, he could barely remain fully awake anymore, but the wolf would constantly bark at him or pull at his hands with it's teeth to maintain him aware of his surroundings.

Soon enough he found himself too dizzy to move anymore, so he finally crouched, hugging his knees shivering, he felt horribly impotent and he couldn't handle it anymore, the wolf caught up with Xavier to bark at him, alert him that his partner fell behind.
 
Seeing the kid down on the ground, Xavier walked to him, kneeling to loop his arm underneath the kid's. "C'mon," he grunted, pulling him to his feet. Taking on most of the kid's weight, he helped him walk back to his home, stopping occasionally to take a break. He always kept up a conversation going, sometimes not even talking about anything of importance, just trying to keep the kid conscious. If he had to carry him back, he might be too weak to do anything of importance when they got back.

Once finally back inside, Xavier lied the kid down on his sleeping bag, pulling out the Tylenol bottle. Opening it, he examined the pills, trying to remember if that's what they looked like when he was a kid. Putting a couple onto the palm of his hand, he helped the kid sit up before handing him the pills. "Take these," he told him gently. "And if you start feeling really funny or worse, tell me, okay?"
 
He looked up when the man returned for him, pulling him up and helping him reach home, he kept on talking, trying to keep him away and conscious all the time and he didn't stop until they were there, nothing made them stop but deep inside he felt now a strange kind of warmth. Despite everything, this man hadn't abandoned him there, and had done all this just for him.

What was what he was doing? Gaining his trust? What was trust anyway? was it love?

He didn't know the answer to any of these questions, he hardly knew language, one language, and he couldn't waste his time with such trivial things, least that was the way he was trying to convince himself things were like now.

When he was led down on the sleeping back he didn't really move, only sighing and whimpering, his wolf lying down on top of him instantly to keep him warm, but then moved away as Xavier picked him up. The boy at first hesitated, but then he just swallowed them, shrugging at the very idea but he couldn't do anything about it, he could only hope this would make the irritation go away.
 
Every couple of minutes, Xavier would hold his hand over the kid's head, checking his temperature, terribly worried that he might have given him the wrong medication and had made the fever worse. Taking out the other bottles and the peaches, he set them next to his lighters, already salivating at the thought of the thick, sugary syrup inside the cans.

Glancing over at the kid, he said, "Soon as you get better, we'll have these peaches to celebrate, okay?" Giving him a smile, he placed his fingers at his temples, a headache immediately and fiercely attacking him. Groaning, he squeezed his eyes shut for a long moment.

When he opened his eyes once more, he forced a smile again before saying, "I'm fine...just...I should be eating better before helping you through that." He gestured towards the entrance, though he was secretly fearful of the fierce headache. 'Could I be dying?' He thought fearfully.
 
He turned to him, fringe covering his eyes as usual, but sweaty still, he did feel the pain wearing off very slowly, and the feeling that he could move a little bit more. "You're ... not dying" he suddenly said "You get... headaches... because you feed... on bad food... and lack sugar... you need sugar so it... turns into energy... your brain needs it... oxigen... and ... s... stuff..." he was overdoing it. He didn't know what was going on but he looked like he was having a lot of headaches and he just tried to make it look a lot less terrible than what he probably was thinking.

"..." He removed his hair from his face and opened his eyes, again those sky blue aquamarine eyes placed themselves on the man, ice cold, but clearly trying to make up a smile, terribly failing. Even his wolf whined a little.
 
Xavier, seeing the attempted grin, returned it, though his came slightly more natural. "Now, you need to rest," he said after the moment passed, his pale eyes returning to their usual serious look. "You won't get better if you don't." Smiling again, he sat down next to the kid, wanting to be near in case his fever got worse, though his head was still pounding.

'Malnutrition isn't the only thing that can give me headaches like this,' he thought. Brain tumors, internal bleeding, a concussion...a list of the worst things that could be happening to him ran through his head. 'Stop,' he forcibly told himself. Thinking like that was worse than going out into the snow without any clothes on.

Clear of mind now, he glanced at the kid before asking, "Feeling any better?"
 
He turned his head slightly toward the man, eyes trapped on him for a moment before he looked away, letting out a heavy breath " ... I feel ... less pain" he mumbled, and caressed his beast's head, the one that just snuggled on him before whining softly and licking his face once more. "... You ... didn't want me... I thought you'd be glad ... if I got out of your sight... " He coughed softly and cleared his throat "...Why do this...?"
 
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