“What do you mean he ran away?” Marcus asked as he walked out of his class full of confused students, bag over his shoulder and quick steps echoing around the long, empty hallway.

“He's not here! I checked everywhere! I never left the front of the bedroom and I open it to check on him and find the window open and he's gone!”

Marcus nearly tripped as he rushed down the stairs of the three-story building, cursing repeatedly as his heart slammed against his ribcage.

He hadn't known Kuzma for long, sure, and most of the time, the guy was insulting him, but he was also a vulnerable victim with nowhere else to go and was Marcus’ self-appointed responsibility. And with the wolves on his tail, Kuzma wasn't safe out in the open like that and could've literally been ripped to shreds by a bunch of werewolves.

What has my life become that that's a possibility?

“Fuck. Okay, Penny. Stay where you are. Is Tom there?” he asked, pausing to try and catch his bearings.

“Yes. He's fixing your door. I'm so sorry, Marcus. I was so scared, I didn't know who to call first an-and I didn't know if I should've gotten the police involved an--”

“Calm down, Penny,” Marcus said softly, sounding calmer than he really was, resuming his descent down the stairs.

“I'll find him. Just stay with Tom and don't let anyone else into my place under any circumstances.”

“Yeah, but wai--”

Pocketing his phone and jumping over the last two steps, Marcus stopped to take deep breaths.

I am more than out of shape. This is ridiculous.

Standing up straight, he nearly ran out of the school, rushing down the front entrance stairs then down the luxurious driveway, rushing out the front gates as his mind tried to think of all the places Kuzma could've been.

He may have…flown away?

Marcus stopped a moment at that thought before carrying on, trying not to think about that possibility. Even with all the…work, going back to the days of an empty house would've been more than difficult.

Maybe I'll get a dog if he did.

Focus, dude.

Okay so if he didn't leave the coop—bird jokes, stop it— then maybe…The forest?

Maybe?

Marcus didn't have any other option, so he found himself jogging towards the hiking trail, silently wishing Kuzma was okay and not held down by a bunch of crazy, religious werewolves with warped senses of justice that involved genocide.

Again, he wished he knew what his life had become that that was something that could've actually happened.

#

Marcus hadn't gotten to the hiking trail yet when he was suddenly thrown backward by a tackle-hug from Kuzma.

“Human. I'm human, remember? Oxygen,” Marcus breathed under the tight hug after steadying himself on his feet, letting out a sigh of relief when Kuzma's hold loosened but the sirin continued to hug him for dear life.

Sirin. That is still so weird, and so fucking fascinating.

“Sorry,” Kuzma muttered in Russian before pressing his forehead against Marcus’ neck.

Marcus sighed again, wincing. The painkillers seemed to be wearing off which meant his abdomen was beginning to burst with enough pain to knock him over, building up bit by bit but he tried to deal.

“Why did you leave? Did Penny do something? Say something?” Marcus asked, glancing at the couple staring at them from across the street before turning his head back to try and look at Kuzma's face.

Whatever. They already think what they wanna think.

“...You did not know? About the woman?” Kuzma asked quietly, sounding so small.

“What? Kuzma are you alright? Okay. Dumb question. Uh...Hey. It's going to be okay.”

Kuzma only slumped against him, his heavy weight making Marcus struggle but again, he dealt with it.

“You didn't know,” Kuzma said, letting out a long breath of air and Marcus was just lost.

“Okay,” Marcus said slowly, drawing out the word, nearly crying with thanks when Kuzma stopped resting his whole weight on him. He didn't think his bruised torso could've held out much longer.

“...She opened the door…” Kuzma went on after a moment of silence, “...Someone came in and…I thought I wouldn't care if they took me…I have nothing else…No reason to want to stay but my ancestors…but then the door and…and I ran. I just...ran,” Kuzma finished in a broken whisper, and Marcus felt his eyes well up with tears again, even though he didn't fully understand Kuzma's broken sentences, a mix of sputtering English and mumbled Russian words.

“What you say to more hot chocolate, huh? I could bake a cake?” Marcus asked softly, still not sure what to do with his hands that stayed by his side.

He felt Kuzma nod slightly against his neck but the sirin wasn't exactly letting go.

“You're gonna have to…y’know? Let me go? So we can walk back to my place?” he said slowly, starting to feel awkward.

“Not now,” Kuzma mumbled and there wasn't much else Marcus could have said to that.

He sighed and looked up at the skies, feeling something in his soul twist when he heard Kuzma's sniffing.

So no more Penny then. Ah man. Is this my fault? I had to work and I couldn't just leave him alone.

Was it Tom? Did Tom come in and freak him out? But I still have to work and he can't be on his own. Fuck, what am I doing?

Marcus let out a small sigh, putting his hands in the pockets of his slacks and looking around him, ignoring the chill of autumn.

With the way the sun was shining and with the obvious change of color the plants were going through, the quiet of the small town save for the sound of the moving wind, it was almost able to convince Marcus that everything was going to be okay.

He wished it did but truthfully, he hadn't a clue what else was going to spring out on him or even if whatever happened next was going to be the end of him.

Everything he knew was being messed with too fast and Marcus wasn't sure even he could've kept his cool any longer.

But that didn't matter right then, not yet. At that moment, all Marcus really cared about was stopping Kuzma's soft crying.

“Hey. Kuzma?”

“Da?”

“It's a pretty day, don't you think?”

Marcus patiently waited for a response to his, admittedly, strange and random question and was beginning to think he wasn't going to get one.

“Da,” Kuzma whispered, sounding like he was in awe.

The sirin stepped back with his hands flat on Marcus’ shoulders and Marcus watched, lips twitching upwards, as Kuzma looked up at the skies then around him with wide, reddish eyes full of surprise.

“Da. It's a pretty day.”