it's a nightmare but it's one exciting ride

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He recoils away from the blood droplets. "No!"

"Sorry," he says slightly sheepishly of the blood, and relaxes fractionally. "When I woke up and you weren't there, I looked for you in the mirror. I saw the wolves. I was afraid I wouldn't get here in time."

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"Why on earth would you ever be concerned about that! You just almost killed yourself, fool!"

"Well I couldn't let you die!"

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"Why not!"

"I don't know!"

"I just couldn't."

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Chu Wanning doesn’t know what to say to that. He doesn’t want to say anything at all. He wants the Beast to throw him over his shoulder and drag him back to the castle and lock him away and crush him against another mattress before he has time to think about any of this.

“You need bandages,” he forces out at last, eyes trained on the ground.

"I suppose I do," he says wryly. He gives Chu Wanning a lopsided grin and then picks him up, tosses him over his shoulder, and lopes back to the castle at a pace that does a lot to explain how he got there in time.

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!!!

Chu Wanning yelps and claws at the Beast's shoulder, blushing violently.

He sets him down once they're inside the castle and the doors closed.

"Sorry. I just wanted to not find out if the wolves had any more friends." He brushes off Chu Wanning's shoulder unnecessarily.

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Incoherent horny fuming.

He tips Wanning's chin up and kisses him before loping off to fetch cloth and clean water.

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Chu Wanning thinks he needs to sit down. He leans against the nearest wall and closes his eyes.

The beast returns with the supplies and tries to see to Wanning's little scratches first.

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Chu Wanning bats him away. “See you yourself first, what’s wrong with you!”

"I can't reach most of my own injuries ," he points out.

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Chu Wanning exhales sharply through his nose and snatches the supplies away. "Then say that!" he snaps. "Let me see your back."

The beast sheds the tattered remains of his clothes unselfconsciously and turns around.

(His back is also unfairly attractive, broad and muscled under the fur.)

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No It's Not Fuck You.

The beast's back is not attractive at all! Chu Wanning is not attracted to it at all. He is perfectly calm and not overcome with lust in the slightest.

He moves forward calmly to begin cleaning and bandaging the deepest claw marks. (The beast really is........ so muscled. And so much larger than Chu Wanning. Fuck.)

The Beast makes small noises of ambiguous valence when the cuts are agitated by being washed.

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Chu Wanning is indifferent to any noises the beast may or may not make, but he tries to be gentle.

"Does the magic of this place heal you quickly?"

"I think so," he says, "but not instantly, and I haven't had a lot of opportunity to test it...I haven't been in the most scientific mood when I've been hurt, in the past."

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He scowls. "Do you charge off to get hurt like this every time someone gets attacked by wolves in the area?"

"It doesn't generally happen. Those of us bound to the castle don't really smell like food, I imagine--stone and metal and plants and bugs aren't really things that wolves eat, and I'm fairly sure I smell like a threat. You're the first guest who's ever been attacked. I would try to rescue anyone who was attacked by wolves, but--you're special. I don't know all the reasons why, yet, but you are. I can feel it."

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