Valko was not supposed to be back until morning.
You knew that. He had told you that he had to leave because staying with you during his full transformation in the supermoon might get dangerous.
You had been telling yourself this over and over again ever since he left. You knew his safety is guaranteed as long as he's with his pack but it still didn't stop you from crying about it at two in the morning, curled in bed with his t-shirt held tightly against your chest.
You didn't notice the balcony window opening. You only know he's back when a familiar warmth settles behind you, followed by a familiar chin nuzzling into your neck.
“You’ve been crying all night?”
And then you're turning, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt, pressing your face into his neck, kissing his jaw, his cheek, the corner of his mouth and crying harder all while smearing the wet mess of your nose on his face, which was not a very cutesy combination but you were past caring about all that.
"Easy there, princess. I just came back and it looks like you're trying to drown me in your snot."
You snort and immediately wish you hadn't, given the current state of your nose. You hit him, wiping your nose with the back of your hand. "Shut up, i hate you. I was so scared you'd get hurt or that you'd never come back to me because... because you realised how different i am from you.”
You feel stupid saying that out loud but you were actually scared, scared that his transformation would make him realise just how disparate their two worlds are, and how convenient it is for him to stay away from your kinds.
He turns your face to look at him. "I will always come back to you because I love you." He says, wiping the tears from your eyes, his lips meeting yours in soft feathery kisses. "No matter how much distance the world tries to put between us. No matter what forces decide we don't belong in the same story, I will find my way back to you. Every single time."
His words overwhelm you completely. The intensity of it all makes your body give out, your face falling back into his chest as you cry for an entirely different reason now, hands fisting tighter in his shirt like you can physically keep him here. His arms come around you, holding you like he can't bear the thought of a world where the two of you aren't together.
By the time you pull back to look at him, your eyes are dry, every tear spent until your heart is satiated and only then you notice the scratches along his jaw, the dried blood at his temple you had just been kissing.
"It'll heal, princess. I just need some time.”
"You're weakened right now, it'll take longer, you could get infected and spread rabies to me."
He looks genuinely offended at that. "That's foul. I'm not a dog."
You shrug. "You bite me all the time."
"You steal and sniff my clothes all the time," he says, pointing at the t-shirt still clutched in your hands, "but that doesn't make you a perverted thief, or does it?”
A triumphant smile spreads across his face. But you can't let him win.
"Who's the good boy?" you say instead. "Who wants belly rubs?"
"Me! Me-" His ears pop out, tail wagging before he's even finished the sentence. Then he catches your expression and stops, sitting very still and attempting to look like none of that just happened.
You raise a teasing eyebrow and he pouts, thoroughly defeated.
"Come on, puppy." You're already moving for the first aid kit. He follows, dropping onto the edge of the couch, and despite the pout, his ears are still slightly raised and his tail still wagging hopefully for belly rubs.
