By warm candlelight and in friendly company, the illusion that our world was cold and unforgiving was just that. There was no absence of smiles and laughter around the dinner table. Still, someone was missing, and I could not get the picture of him alone in his room out of my mind.

The De'en Fae had served a delicious meal. There were never enough side dishes, but it was a small sacrifice. Juniper and Aster made the most of the ingredients I procured. Our covert location meant meat was in short supply, but that night, the pork was cooked to perfection. It was a pity I had no appetite. My distraction took sweetness from the meat and made the wine bitter. Out of politeness, I ate, but not enough to divert suspicions that my mood was sour.

"You haven't eaten much." Kenichi's hand fell onto my shoulder as he passed behind my chair. He and several others had planned a walk to the Tavern to finish the night with cheerful music. I was not in the mood to enjoy anything other than quiet.

"I am tired," I explained, excusing myself before an invitation to join was offered. My eyes already felt heavy, with a dull ache forming behind them... but it could have been Lowel's elderberry wine.

The last dishes were put away, the table cleaned, and the chairs returned to order. I licked my fingertips to snuff the candles and then closed my eyes and submitted to the darkness. Silence crept over the Charm's home with the greater distance between them. Soon, the wood consumed their chatter, and with it, overstimulation vanished. I breathed deep and exhaled slowly, swaying my head east and west to ease my aching neck. I had one more thing to accomplish before I could rest peacefully.

With a full plate warming one hand and a glass of water cooling the other, I had tucked the tepid bottle of wine under my arm on my way up the steel stairs. The mezzanine's scaffold railings gave way to walkways constructed of dead wood and creeping vines; they were deceiving in their sturdiness.

"Knock, knock," I announced my arrival, lifting the half-drawn linen hanging over the doorhole as I ducked inside.

The lonely wolf clung fervently to the pillow before his chest and sunk down into the mess of blankets he lay in. The chance he could make himself small enough to go unnoticed in such a confined space was improbable. The message that he craved no company was clear. Though he may have kept his eyes from me, the scent that rolled off of him was inescapable. His thick lupine musk dried my throat and clung to the moss-lined walls of the nest room he inhabited. I coughed, which instantly earned his attention; his head pivoted toward me.

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"Do I smell that bad?"

"You have a distinct odour," I nodded, clearing my throat of it completely. Kneeling at the tray table by his bed, I placed both his breakfast and lunch plates to set down his dinner. I offered the water but kept back the wine for now.

Tapping my finger off the crystal lamp to see him better, its dull glow brightened at my command. He squinted and grunted, disgruntled that I had disturbed the darkness. Grease slicked the roots of his unkempt mop of golden hair, and the length of his bushy beard was not exaggerated by his hosts.

"You haven't been eating. June mentioned you don't do much of anything... Even bathing."

"Why do you care?" He snapped and snatched the water from my hand. His rudeness was unnecessary, and I had grown tired of his childish sulking. I took his chin and turned his mouth from the glass, sending water down the tangle of his beard and onto my hand, but I got the complete attention of his eyes. His annoyance at my harsh gesture caused them to flicker, flaming amber. The fire of his Lycanthropic was still alive even if his disposition neared dead.

"I don't." I meant for my tone to be blunt; I wouldn't flatter him with lies.

"I'm not scared of you." The growl in his words stirred me, but not fearfully. I was neither as frightened of him as he was of me, and neither did I want him to be. That was the last thing I desired.

"Stop making a fool of yourself." I strived not to roll my eyes as I stood.

I hit a nerve, and his reaction was instantaneous. He coiled his fingers around my wrist and withdrew my hand from his face. Oddly, his manner was not aggressive but the pressure he held me with was unwavering. His touch was intimate in that his thumb stretched up into my palm.

Even in human form, he towered over me when he stood, but even in the face of such a formidable, muscular body, there was nothing to fear, not in the helpless state he resigned himself to.

"You think I'm a fool, huh? Try my life on for size, and then tell me how foolish I am."

I craned my neck to stare up at him, and his eyes pleaded that I not think so little of him.

The mess of blankets he'd had strewn over his body fell to our feet. The moment he realised his nakedness, his shoulders sunk, and he sighed, exasperated. "Fuck it... Look, I've lost everything, and I- ... I keep making an ass of myself."

"I don't care. You have people who do care, though - more than you know - and for their sake... you should bathe." My eyes panned down his body slowly. Mostly, I noticed the deep, ruddy claw marks scaring his chest, but also the amount of hair that coated it and trailed off down the centre of his torso to flare out over his stomach and pelvis. "If you don't, mushrooms are going to grow in all of this foliage," I muttered distractedly. I'd never touched someone covered in so much hair; I was curious what it would feel like to run my fingers through it. For once, I wouldn't give in to my urges so easily; I didn't want to disturb him with my proclivities.

"Ha-ha."

The sound of happiness, no matter how brief or shallow, fluttered from his chest. His laughter was such a handsome sound. I looked up just in time to see a smile burst across his face as he chuckled at my idle joke. That was all I had wanted. It perfected my evening.