Responsibilities-Part Four
Responsibilities
Part Four
Christian ran down the street towards the park, figuring that Eric would have probably went that way first. He did not bother to put on his hood to shield himself from the slight drizzle, but even through his thick hoodie-sweater, he could feel the wind pierce through the fabric and his fur. Still, he did not let the cold weather stop him as he ran towards the park as fast as he could.
When he got to the park, he made his way straight to the jungle gym and searched around. He continuously called out Eric's name, hoping that he would hear him and come to him. However, Eric was not in the jungle gym, nor any other part of the park. The place was completely empty, so he could not even ask for help from anyone. His ears perked up as he remembered that he had a cell phone. He quickly dove his paws into his pockets and searched for his phone. A mental image of watching his dad place the phone onto the table and remembering that Trevor knocked a couple things onto the floor. As luck would have it, the bear knocked over his phone, making Christian overlook grabbing it on his way out the door. He stopped looking around the park and headed straight back to his own house.
He almost felt like shouting at this point, not knowing how to express himself in any other way. He wished that his parents stopped trying to give him all of the responsibilities and let him have a break from it for once. He had never asked to watch the cub; it was just thrown on him like everything else. He just wanted to spend the weekend with Trevor, no matter how big of a jerk he turned out to be. He was so close to having what he wanted, until Eric went and ruined everything for him.
Christian shook the thoughts out of his head, feeling guilty that he was thinking them while the cub could have been in serious trouble. He bit his lip a bit as he thought about Eric telling the bear to stop hitting me. His ear still stung from the bear hitting it, and he wondered how much worse things would have become if he made another slip up. The young wolf was much smaller than the bear, but he still had the guts to stand up to Trevor when he could not. The more that he thought about Trevor, the more that his thoughts went back to Eric.
He blinked a couple times, waking up from his thoughts and looking around him. He was so focused on everything else that he had not realized that he went right past his house and almost all the way down the street. He stopped running, kicking himself in the head mentally for having lost track the way that he did. He turned himself around and started to head back towards his house, but before he could make it, his ears flickered. Despite the rain and wind muffling most of the sounds around him, he could still hear the sound of an out of control cough.
He turned around a couple times, searching for the sound until he recognized the house that he was close to. He rushed towards the front of the house and froze when he saw Eric. The young wolf pup was curled up in a ball next to the front door. He had only put on a pair of shorts and a loose t-shirt, probably from a suitcase packed from when he was still intending on going to Hawaii. With the bushes in front of the house, it would have been hard to even see him on the ground the way that he was. Christian sprinted to the wolf, getting down to his knees and rubbing the wolf's shoulder to see if he was still awake.
"Mommy?" Eric asked, turning his head from the ground to look up at the fox in front of him. When he saw that it was Christian though, he went silent and turned his head away from him.
"Eric, it's just me. I'm sorry for saying those things. C'mon, it's really cold outside and you're sick. Lets get you home." Christian said and rubbed at the wolf's side, trying to get him to get up.
Eric did not respond to Christian's words, just laying there on the floor. Christian continued to rub him and tried to make him get up on his own, but soon he realized that the wolf was not just ignoring him for what he the things that he said ealier. He turned the wolf's head around and saw that he was completely passed out. Eric must have pushed himself too far walking all the way to his own house. He probably tried several things to get back into the house as well, short of smashing a window open.
Christian looked around, trying to think of what to do. He knew that waking the cub was probably not going to do him too much good. Even if he could get the wolf conscious again, he would be too exhausted to walk himself all the way back to his own house. He still did not have his cell phone to call for help either, and even if he did, he did not know who to call to help him with the task. Christian could see his house from where he was at, though, it was all the way down the street and on the opposite side. Still, he knew what he had to do.
Christian put his arms around the wolf, rolling him over until he was on his back. He slid one arm underneath the wolf's legs, catching him behind his knees while his other arm slid under the wolf's back. With a little bit of preparation, he managed to lift the wolf up to his chest. He stood up slowly, making sure that he could actually lift Eric's body all the way up so he would not accidentally drop him. When he was up all the way, he turned around and looked back to the house, drooping his ears as he realized that it was not going to be an easy walk.
It was not just the rain and the wind that was going to make carrying the cub a challenge, which had conveniently decided to pick up at the perfect time. There was also the fact that wolf cubs had their growth spurt much sooner than most of the other species. Christian's lanky arms fidgeted at the weight, wishing that the Sinclair family were some kind of rodents instead. Regardless of the uphill battle that he had to face, he pushed on anyways. Eric was shivering constantly in his paws, subconsciously curling up in the fox's arms as he was carried to the house.
Christian wished that there was some way that he could go back in time and stop himself from saying all those things to him. He knew that this whole thing was his fault, even if he did not ask for the responsibility of taking care of the cub. Christian looked down at Eric, biting his lip nervously. Despite the way that the wolf had looked when he was fighting Trevor, in his arms he was just a vulnerable little cub who wanted his mommy. It felt like a knife had dug its way into his chest from all of the guilt that he was building up.
When Christian got back to the house he thanked that he had forgotten to close the door in his panic. The fox carried the young cub into the house, and closed the door behind him with his foot. He furrowed his eyebrows as a new sound caught his attention without the rain and wind distracting him. As he walked, the sickening sound of squishing filled his ears. He looked down and realized that his socks were completely soaked from walking around in the rain. It was then that he realized that all of his clothes and the wolf's clothes were drenched from the rain.
Christian carried Eric into the guest bedroom, walking him up to the bed and letting him down softly. He took a couple steps back, slightly surprised that he was able to make it so far without much trouble. However, as soon as the thought passed his mind, the adrenaline wore off and his arms felt like they were on fire. Not only did his arms burn, but he also noticed that he was shivering like crazy. The fox had let most of the warm air escape from leaving the door open, and it would take a little while before his heater would come back on. Not to mention his close weren't helping.
He quickly peeled off his socks and tossed them to the side, but it did little to help how cold he was feeling. He then looked down at the cub, and saw that he was shivering just as bad. The wolf's clothes were just as soaked as his own, if not worse. Christian gulped as an idea passed through his mind, seeming that it would be a little strange for him to do it. But he also knew that it would be the best way to warm up both of them, and the wolf's well being was his main focus. Without any more hesitation, he peeled off his hoodie and shirt, tossing them aside to his socks.
The fox wrapped his paws around his body, feeling awkward without his hoodie on. Even when he was at the house and everything was perfectly warm, he hated to be without it. Christian's thin body felt boney in his arms, and without the hoodie to protect him, he felt completely exposed. He checked Eric, making sure that he was still asleep before pulling down his pants and adding it to the pile. His long legs looked just the same as his stretched out body arm thin arms. It didn't help either that he wore a pair of thin tight briefs along with it. He then started to work with the cub, grabbing hold of the cub's arms and positioning them over his head before pulling off his t-shirt. He then grabbed hold of his shorts and tugged them off, trying his best not to wake him up from his sleep.
When he got them off all the way, he chucked Eric's clothes with his own and stared down at the cub. It was strange for him to see Eric in nothing but his boxers, even though he had just seen it earlier. He seemed so much more different since earlier, and Christian could not help but feel a bit strange at the feelings. Christian crawled up over the wolf and laid down behind him carefully. He edged himself close to the wolf, sliding his arm underneath the wolf's neck while his other arm wrapped around the wolf's chest.
When he found a comfortable position, he pulled himself and the cub close and rested his head over the cub. His arms and chest felt a bit cold from touching up against Eric's wet fur, but once he was fully wrapped around his body, he actually felt a bit warm. The wolf finally stopped shivering after a couple minutes of holding the cub, and it was not too much longer that the wolf pushed himself up against the fox. He smirked, knowing that the cub was going to be alright now. Christian closed his own eyes and fell asleep, cradling Eric in his arms.
Christian's large ears drooped from side to side as he woke up. The large ears, like everything else on the fox's body, were too large for him. When he was awake enough, they stopped flicking from side to side and stood up. He opened his eyes, regretting it instantly from the brightness of the room. The sun decided to beat him to the morning and light up the room. He closed his eyes for a second, trying to adjust himself to the light before opening them again. He blinked a couple times before he was finally able to see again.
His arms and shoulders ached a little bit, so he tried to lift up his arms to stretch himself out. He cocked his head to the side in confusion and looked down when he realized that something was weighing down his arm. He looked down at his arm and instead was met with the back of a furred head. Startled, he tried to pull back from the head, confused about what was going on right now. In his jerk, he ended up shifting the cub just enough to wake him up from his sleep.
"Christian?" Eric asked, waking up from his own slumber.
Christian took a second to put all of the pieces together before remember everything that had happened the day before. He cursed himself, wishing that he had not woken up the wolf before he could get his clothes back on. Not that it would have mattered much anyways. Eric had managed to wrapped his arms around Christian's arms tightly and cuddled up with it during his sleep. The wolf's muzzle rested against Christian's shoulder, using it as though it were a pillow. He rubbed his face against the fox's shoulder, wiping off his sleepiness before opening his eyes all the way and getting up.
"Where am I?" Eric asked, pulling away from the fox and pushing his other arm off of him.
"I found you in front of your house. You walked all the way there without a jacket or anything." Christian said, sounding a bit more accusingly then he intended to sound.
Eric did not respond to Christian, instead just laying away from him with his back turned to the fox. Christian knew that it was not because he fell back asleep, recognizing the wolf's ear movements and the way he was breathing. The wolf's ears went back and forth, as though he was working out all of the pieces of yesterday as well. Christian gave off a long sigh, knowing that the was still upset at him for everything.
"Listen, Eric. I'm sorry about everything I said yesterday. I did not mean anything, I was just upset." Christian apologized, reaching his paw out and touching his shoulder.
"Leave me alone. I don't want to talk to you." Eric scootched himself away from the fox, pulling himself to the edge of the bed.
"C'mon, I was just being stupid at the time." Christian said as he pulled himself right up to the back of the wolf, trying to close the gap between them.
"You were being stupid. He was an idiot."
"Wait, what?"
"Why were you doing that stuff with Trevor? He was an idiot and he did not even like you." Eric rolled himself over to face Christian.
"I don't have to explain that. You don't even know what we were doing." Christian responded and pulled himself back on the bed. The white on the fox's cheek had turned a light shade of pink and he averted his eyes from the cub.
"I'm young, not stupid. I know what you guys were doing it, I just don' know why you were doing it with him. You were being stupid." Eric was the one to close the gap this time as he pulled up closer to Christian.
"Well, it's not easy to explain. It's not like people are lining up to be with this body." Christian motioned his hands over himself, pointing at his boney body.
"I like the way that your body looks."
"Or the way that these stupid ears hang or my face." He said, moving his hands up and making a circular motion of his head.
"I like the way that your face looks."
"Or my personality and my awkwardness." Christian's tone started to take a much darker tone the more things that he listed off.
"I like your personality."
"That's nice and all, but I want someone to like me." Christian said, not bothering to take in what Eric was saying for even a second.
"I like you."
"No. I want someone to like-"
"Shut up!" Eric shouted, stopping the fox before he could go any further with his own self-loathing. "You're just like everyone else. You don't listen because you think I'm a kid. Everyone gives me the responsibilities of older people, but everyone still treats me like I don't know anything. You think that when I say something, that I don't know what I'm talking about. I like you!"
Eric jumped out of the bed and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Christian, too shocked to do anything but lay on the bed frozen. He had never imagined that the cub actually liked him, though, it was not just because he had trouble believing anyone could like him. Everything that he thought of himself had vanished in his mind as he went back and looked at all of the things that the cub had been trying to tell him all day and all the other times that he had spent watching over Eric. Ideas of the wolf trying to tell him things or the way he acted around the him that Christian just passed over as things that cubs say to be cute, rather than actually meaning anything. It was as though he was seeing Eric for the first time.