Phoenix Maplewood A temper set for tender

Reposting with edits to better suit Reek's timeline! For the wifey, @Saena

Scarlett's lingering death weighed heavy on Reek's mind even a week after her passing, but the pain of loss was well outweighed by the burning pang of guilt that leeched at his very core. Guilt could be a funny thing— how it sometimes reared it's ugly head within a man who had done nothing wrong. But, it wasn't a question of what Reek did, it was a matter of what he didn't do instead. He second guessed everything. He thought, perhaps if he would have tried even harder Scarlett wouldn't have slipped away. The thought plagued him. With each passing day, he could feel the wound begin to close, but the process would be slow until he felt whole again.

While Reek's appearence had always been unkempt, in recent days he had taken on a much more discheveled quality. Sleep was elusive. He hadn't groomed in days. His eyes— sunk back in his skull, dead and devoid of nearly all expression. He threw himself into his work on the borders in the hopes that it would suppress another catastrophic breakdown from happening, even though at this point he felt he was well past the possibilty of breaking. He would hold strong, but if allowed to continue in this unhealthy rut, Reek's health and sanity were doomed to decline. He would need to make time for something else, a getaway of some sort to distract him and let emotional bruises fully heal.

Finishing his third patrol before lunch, Reek fell away from the borders and slunk over to the nearest cache. He uncovered a dirty moose leg to drag back to the infirmary for Saena. If one good thing came from Scarlett's death, it was now much easier to properly care for his mate. Now, she could be his primary focus.

He made the awkward shuffle back to his subterranean infirmary/den and dropped the moose leg at it's mouth. There, he peered into the enterance and hoped he would find his wife within.

Like usual, Saena was hiding out in the den. It was a lot more spacious with Scarlett gone, as awful as that thought was. Somewhat greedily, she was glad for it. The den had been cramped with the both of them and Reek, so the extra leg room was appreciated greatly. She was alone a good deal of the time while Reek tended to the pack and presumably put Ukko through his paces every day, but Saena was okay with that. She was okay with never seeing the light of day again.

But the depression that crept up on her and suffocated her was primarily due to being cooped up and unable to do anything, and so it was a disastrous cycle. The more time she spent in the den, the less she wanted to leave it. The scents of the forest that washed in now and again were almost foreign to her. Ukko, Tavi, Desna and Reek remained of the wolves she knew somewhat well, and there were many other scents of wolves she didn't know. Hadn't vetted. Any one of them could be a danger to her, and she had no desire to go find out.

So when Reek sought her out, she was still lying in the gloom of the den. Her eyes shone as she lifted them to his dark face, haloed with the light from outdoors, and she quietly groaned, "don't make me go outside yet."

Lo and behold, a voice came from the darkness within the den. Reek's ears perked at the sounds and smells of his wife that permiated their humble hole, but her figure was still shrouded in subterrainian black, obscured from his seeking gaze. Reek squinted into the dark, allowing his eyes time to adjust to the gloom, until he caught her deep, indigo eyes with his. "You don't have to come out if you don't want to," he quietly responded. Instead, he would join her within the confines of home.

Turning his body around, Reek took the moose leg in his jaws and dragged it backwards through the mouth of the den before settling at Saena's good side. "I brought you something." He presented the leg to her with a gentle push of his muzzle.

Reek was a doting husband indeed. Instead of urging Saena to rise to the light of day and try to act like the alpha female she was, he allowed her to remain wallowing in the den. Not only that, but he joined her. She pressed her face into his dark fur as he settled near her and breathed deeply, trying to ground herself with her mate's presence. She feared the alternative was to float away on a sea of depression born of her lameness and the perpetual cycle of locking herself in the den.

She hadn't realized how hungry she was until Reek murmured and pulled a moose deer forward. "Thank you," she breathed quietly. Moose was almost exotic to her, a meat she had sampled less than a handful of times, and though the leg wasn't really fresh and was smattered with dirt, nibbling at it brought the first hint of euphoria she'd felt in weeks to her breast. She pressed near to the alpha male as she enjoyed the meal, swallowing slowly and gnawing deliberately as though to savour it forever. After all, if she stripped the whole thing, she would not only feel sick from eating so much, but there would be no further distraction in the form of food.

She pressed in close and began to eat the offering Reek presented. Feeling her touch, Reek felt a much needed warmth run through his body in place of the hollow numbness that had taken root. For a moment, he laid in silence as she ate, content to share in the closeness of space along with her. Finally, after a stretch of silence, Reek softly murmered, "I love you." These three simple words, he felt, too often went unsaid.

"It was good seeing you at the hunt," he continued once the silence had been broken. She may not have been completely healed, but it was good for her to get out and move every once in a while. It was no life living underground. "In fact, it's gotten me thinking... How are your traveling legs?"

"I want to take you somewhere special." The first place to come to mind was Redtail Rise. Namely, their Lover's Leap. Reek had always been a creature of nostalgic sentiment. "Just you and me. We could take a few days and just focus on us for a while." Anything would be better than staying underground. Perhaps, it would be just what they needed to clear this collective funk.

She chewed a tough piece of sinew almost ponderously, her eyes lighting on her mate's face. When he spoke, the first thing she felt was a wave of guilt—had she remembered she loved him, and he her, when she'd willingly lain with Luke?—but she quashed it readily, unwilling to admit her fault and her treason, and warmly replied, "love you too." After all, in a way, she felt she did. In other ways she still thought it was too soon to know for sure. Regardless, they were life partners now and Saena would, eventually, come to honour it and cherish it.

"My what?" she asked a little dumbly, the words chased by a sudden feeling of apprehension. She was loathe to leave the safety of the maplewood, and the safety of their hole in the ground, after what had happened with Sebastian, but she knew eventually she would have to. The mere thought of giving up her scouting trade was enough to push anxiety to the back of her mind for a moment. Besides, what Reek suggested was wonderful, nostalgic, and probably exactly what Saena needed, considering the entire reason she'd gone out so far was to see how the Rise fared. She had failed at that.

"That sounds fun," she said after a beat, smiling to assure him that she meant it. What did she have to fear from Sebastian, anyway? She'd already mentally vowed that the next time they met, one of them would die, and she would have Reek for back-up if they happened upon him a third time.

They weren't so starry eyed anymore; Reek could feel it despite her reciprocation. The honeymoon phase may have been over, but Reek still loved his mate with a deep intensity as he always had. The breakneck energy that once brought life to their relationship, however, had faded away with it's newness. Nevertheless, Reek didn't fear or fret drifting away from his partner, but sealed awa in this hole, he did fear her growing bored with life, and in turn— himself.

Even so, it brought Reek great joy to see that Saena was at least receptive to taking a brief vacation to focus on themselves. Fun: that was something in short supply as of late. The corners of Reek's mouth turned upward in a now rare smile. "We've worked ourselves into a rut babe," he said. Like a disease, he worried it would eventually infect their relationship... it's cure however, he felt, was this trip.

"I know you won't be able to run or do many of the things we used to do together because of your injuries, but— I just— I wanna show you a good time like we used to have, you know?" Seeing her couped up in this hole— tired and depressed was in turn painful for Reek. "Like, the day we found the waterfall. Remember? When I jumped from the top— Your face..." Unable to contain himself, Reek began to laugh with memories playing like a slideshow in his mind. "Oh my god, your face," he wheezed between rasping fits of laughter.  "It was so..." Reek's face contorted in his best exaggerated imitation, before falling away into a shit-eating grin and more fits of laughter.

Leaving the maplewood for any length of time was always a bittersweet thing. Saena adored her home, cherished every brook and every fallen leaf, but her spirit was permanently troubled and so she wandered in spite of her love for it. Remaining within it for too long made her feel enclosed, and that made her fretful. It was already beginning again, she could feel it, and knew she desperately needed the time away that Reek offered. She had never really considered going anywhere with just him for anything other than business—she'd always ensured one of them remained at home to keep things going, and it was a fortunate thing she did, usually—but the thought was nice, and she smiled pleasantly.

"Asshole," she murmured playfully when he recounted the horror she'd felt when Reek launched himself over the falls. That had been a cruel joke indeed. "You could've died," she reprimanded him, and as if to prove how very mature she was when it came to ensuring no one died, she stuck her tongue out at him.

He snorted. "But, did I die though?" prodded Reek with faux-smug jeer. It had been a dumb decision to jump from the falls— prompted by his own immaturity and desire to show off. The painful smack he felt when he met water was still a fresh memory in Reek's mind, but still, he wouldn't have changed his dumbly motivated actions even with perfect hindsight. They certainly made fun memories... and with so much happening to the maplewood, Reek clinged even harder to the memories of when he was happy; when it was just him and Saena huddled together, sopping wet in their waterfall cave with love blossoming new.

"Nah," chuckled Reek in response to his own question. "You're stuck with me until a more stupid decision takes me... Till death do we part, am I right?" He may have laughed, but a part of Reek was serious. He knew he was careless— that he made decisions with the breadth of pin... it was wonder he had survived for so long.

Saena chuckled, then winced as her injured rib protested against it. She was brought back to reality just that quickly, though she did mumble an affectionate, "sure, but don't you go dying on me." It was more likely that she would be the first of the pair to die, anyway. She seemed to have a knack for trouble and being hurt was basically normal nowadays. Someday she wouldn't be so lucky and would probably fall to infection or fever or shock. For now, she was grateful to still be alive after Sebastian had chased her.

"Let's nap," pleaded Saena, who still didn't want to go out into the light of day and face the plethora of pack mates she knew nothing about. Learning their names and faces was a task for another day and the alpha female was loathe to leave the comfortable confines of the den, whether or not she was a little depressed.

His own mortality wasn't something Reek wished to dwell upon, in fact, the idea scared him deeply to his very core. Joking about it, however, brought him some sort of morbid comfort. That way, it felt less real. He was nearing the age of his mother when she passed from a freak neurological occurrence. Despite having no reason to think the same fate would befall him, Reek couldn't help but feel the slight tug of worry.

"Don't worry about me though," he jokingly prodded. "I'm going to live forever... that way, I can always catch you when you fall." With a warm smile, Reek pointed to Saena's injured side with his muzzle. Obviously, it still gave her discomfort, but it was healing well enough. He need not worry like he had with Scarlett.

Reek yawned just as Saena mentioned a nap. "Way ahead of you," he replied, pressing in close to lay his head on the crux of her shoulder. "We can talk about our trip later." Reek's words slowly tapered off into tired mumbles. His eyes, shut tight.