Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Snake and Wolf had been renting an apartment in Zootopia together, just a way to spend some time together just as a couple. They’d settled on the city center pretty easily; neither were big fans of the extreme cold, extreme heat, or being wet. The apartment they chose was relatively nice. They only needed a one bedroom one so they could afford to look at the nicer options. It has a large living room type area where they have a couch, table, and tv. On the other side it leads out to a balcony overlooking the city. To the right of that is the semi open concept kitchen entrance. Farther down that side is a short hallway leading to their bedroom, the bathroom, and an extra room that this apartment opts to use for laundry.

Today Snake and Wolf are relaxing. Wolf is in the kitchen fixing up some breakfast; Snake is out on the couch, pulling the news channel up on the tv.

Wolf’s voice floats over to Snake. “How many eggs did you want again?”

“Seven!” Snake flicks his tongue out and tastes as he says it.

Wolf grumbles. “You’re really killing our budget with all these eggs you know.”

Snake just smiles smugly to himself and switches to a different channel. He lands on a report of the recent “savage predators” debacle. “Since the press conference by ZPD officer Judy Hopps, several more predators have gone savage. Just today, a-”

“Have you seen this, Wolf? Crazy stuff,” Snake says, talking over the broadcast.

Wolf doesn’t answer.

“Wolf?” Snake questions to the silent air. All he hears in response is the sound of some dishes being knocked aside. He turns and looks back towards the kitchen. Wolf is down on all fours, and Snake can hear now that he’s making strained growling noises. He turns, and the look in his eye is wild. Fear starts to fill Snake. “No, no Wolf, Wolf it’s me.”

The words of his lover don’t seem to reach Wolf at all, and he starts slowly stalking towards Snake, a threatening growl emanating from his throat. Snake starts sliding off the couch, away from Wolf. Maybe he can make it to the door if he just goes slowly…

That idea is immediately abandoned as Snake accidentally knocks the tv remote down. Panic spikes through him as he realizes, and the sound of it hitting the wood floor might as well have been a gunshot.

Wolf lunges at him, and Snake has to dodge around the couch as Wolf comes leaping across it. He has to do something, fast. His phone is on the side table next to the couch, which unfortunately means Snake has to get around Wolf. He eyes Wolf, sizing up what he can do. Grief and fear prick at his heart as he does. Why is this happening to them?

That brief hesitation costs him as Wolf lunges again, biting at Snake. Snake manages to avoid his jaws, but he doesn’t avoid the swipe Wolf throws out, and Snake is thrown into the wall. He’s dazed, and Wolf is right on him again. He bites down hard on Snake’s midsection, and Snake screams. He has to thrash wildly to get out of Wolf’s jaws. He’s bleeding, and pain sears through him in waves from the bite. He needs to keep moving through, and he does, quickly diving past Wolf and under the couch. He heaves upward, using all his strength to upturn the couch and launch it at Wolf. It knocks Wolf down, giving Snake enough time to grab his phone and dial the emergency number.

“Zootopia emergency hotline, what’s your emergency?”

“Another savage anima-” the phone is batted away from him and skids across the floor. Wolf had gotten back up and lunged at him. The couch must have hit him in the head because he seemed a little dazed now too, but that wasn’t stopping him from trying to attack Snake. Snake looks around, desperately trying to figure out what to do. He chooses to streak towards the small hallway. Wolf chases him and puts a deep scratch into his lower body, but Snake manages to get into the laundry room and lock himself in there. Wolf pounds on the door, and Snake sees that it’s definitely not going to hold him. He tries to pull the dryer in front of the door, but so much of his strength is gone now that he can’t.

Wolf slams into the door again and the lock busts as it’s thrown open, smacking Snake and throwing him against the back wall. Snake’s body is really starting to scream in agony, but staying still almost certainly means death. He throws a full laundry basket at Wolf and tries to dart past him. The clothes flying into Wolf’s face succeed at blinding him for a second, but he can still swipe wildly, and he catches Snake’s head with one. His claws rake over the left side of Snake’s face and head. Snake cries out and his slither becomes a wobble as he tries to get somewhere else. He’s out of the hall and desperately trying to make for the balcony when Wolf grabs him in his jaws again, biting down on his neck. Blood gushes out and Snake gives a strangled shout. There’s a picture frame on the wall that Snake manages to pull down and shatter on Wolf’s head. He releases Snake, and Snake speeds to the balcony. He slams the sliding door behind him. His vision is starting to blur and darken but he looks to make his way down to the balcony below anyway. Wolf breaks through the glass behind him as he falls down. He can only see out of his right eye so the distance was hard to judge, and he hits the lower balcony hard. Hopefully Wolf will give up trying to chase after him now he’s out of sight. His vision goes real dark as he lays there, bleeding profusely. He doesn’t even know who lives in this apartment, hopefully they won’t be too mad. With that thought, he finally blacks out.

When Snake next regains consciousness, he’s in the hospital. Bandages are all along his body and over the left side of his head. A heart rate monitor beeps softly next to him, and he has an IV drip in his lower body. Whatever they have him on must be really strong, because his wounds only sting a tiny bit, and even the act of just slightly moving his head feels like he’s lifting a heavy weight.

A nurse notices he’s awake and walks over to him. The nurse is a grey bobcat, and even in Snake’s drugged stupor he guesses that he has a predator species nurse because other patients wouldn’t want him around. “Hey there, Mr. Snake,” he says. “Glad to see you’re awake.”

Snake goes to speak and finds it to be quite the challenge. “Am… am I… doin’ alright?” he manages.

The nurse nods. “You were out for about 38 hours, but we’ve managed to patch you up and your vitals have recovered steadily.”

Snake blinks his one working eye gratefully. “Do… do you know anything about… about what they did with Wolf?”

The nurse gives a vague shrug. “The police are holding all the savage animals, so I’m sure he’s there too.”

Snake closes his eye. His wounds might not hurt, but the memory of Wolf’s attack sure did. The image of the wild rage in Wolf’s eye was burned into his brain. Whoever that was, it wasn’t his boyfriend.

“Mr. Snake?”

Snake looks back up. “Sorry… did you say something?”

The nurse gestures to somewhere behind him. “Your neighbors, the ones that brought you here, they’re here to see how you’re doing.” He moves aside, and a pig lady and a sheep lady enter his field of view.

The pig lady speaks first. “Hiya, uh, Mr. Snake, is it? We’re glad to see you’re awake.”

The sheep lady adds on, saying, “You gave us quite the shock, appearing all bloody on our balcony like that. It’s already rare to see any reptiles in Zootopia.”

Snake only vaguely registers the words. “Yeah… yeah, sorry about that.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that hun,” the pig lady says. “Better that than you getting mauled to death.”

Snake gives a vague grumble of agreement. He’d rather not think about what Wolf could’ve done to him back there.

The sheep speaks up again, asking, “if you don’t mind me prying, what was he to you? Roommate? Friend?”

Tears start to well up in the corner of Snake’s eye. “Boyfriend, actually.”

The sheep looks sympathetic. “Oh, I’m so sorry sweetheart.” The word sends a pang of sadness through him. “Well, we don’t wanna intrude too long. When you’re better, don’t hesitate to ask us if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” Snake mumbles, and the two make their leave. He knows he won’t take them up on the offer; he doesn’t want any more reminders. He stares up at the ceiling, the tears slowly beginning to slide down his face. Heart hurting, he slips back into sleep.

When he next wakes, he notices familiar orange fur in his periphery. “Diane?” he croaks out.

She looks up upon hearing her name, and when she sees that he’s awake, gives him a sad smile. “Hey, Snake. You doing alright?” She immediately winces. “Nevermind, dumb question, sorry.”

“What… what are you doing here?” Snake asks. His voice was coarse. He could tell they needed to refill the IV bag with painkillers again.

“I came on government business,” she says. “To see if there was anything we could do to assist the city, since we’re only one state over and all. But…” she looks down. “A fox isn’t exactly someone people are looking to for support right now.” She sighs, then looks back up at him. “I was going to give you and Wolf a surprise visit today but, well…” she trails off. Snake is glad she doesn’t say it out loud. She picks back up with, “I’m sorry that my visit to you two was when you’re in these states.”

Snake turns towards her. “You’ve seen Wolf?”

She nods. “I visited all the animals they’re holding. It’s… it’s scary.” She scoots closer to him, and in a gentler voice says, “The doctor said it would be alright for me to take you on a trip, as long as I keep it short. Would you like to see him?”

Snake got the sense that the doctor probably didn’t say this without some coercion. He appreciated that Diane would do this for him, but he felt conflicted. It’s not like didn’t want to see Wolf but… the one who attacked him, wasn’t really Wolf.

Still, he wouldn’t get another chance to see him, not until they find a cure. “Yeah… thanks, Diane.”

She gives her sadness tinged smile and stands up. She gets the bobcat nurse over to help get Snake into a wheelchair. He’s obviously concerned about moving Snake so soon, but since the doctor had given permission he doesn’t object. Snake grunts in pain as they get him into the wheelchair. His head starts spinning a bit, but he feels better once the nurse gets more painkillers into his IV. Once the bag is attached to the chair, Diane sets off with him.

They’re exiting the elevator on the ground floor when it occurs to Snake to ask, “hey, how are you getting this in your car?”

“We don’t need to use it actually,” Diane responds. “This hospital is only a block away from the ZPD headquarters.” She pushes him across the lobby, giving a wave to the receptionist. The light is blinding once they’re outside the doors, and Snake has to squint his one eye real tight. When he manages to adjust to the brightness, he can see that the ZPD is in fact not far at all.

It may be a short walk (or in his case, ride) over, but the sidewalk is not the smoothest of terrain, and it isn’t the most comfortable experience. Snake is glad to reach the smooth tiled floor of the ZPD. Diane waves to the leopard at the front desk, and pushes Snake off towards the back. She nods to the officers that she passes, and after a winding hallway, she pushes Snake through one more door. On the other side are a series of cells, plexiglass on the fronts of them. Each one that they pass has a different animal in it, all of them predators, all of them with the same wild expression that Wolf had had.

And then, there was Wolf himself. Diane wheeled Snake to a stop a little bit away from the glass. Wolf was stalking around the cell, fur matted, dried blood around his jaws. Clearly cleaning up these animals wasn’t really an option. He notices Diane and Snake and lunges at them, hitting against the glance. Diane flinches but Snake remains still. Maybe it’s the painkillers, maybe it’s the memory of the attack still being fresh. Either way, nothing Wolf does will affect him here.

Sadness starts filling Snake’s heart the longer he looks at Wolf. Whatever was happening, it made Wolf twisted and frightening. The familiar form of his boyfriend is made unfamiliar and alien. He miserably presses his head against the glass. “Please come back to me, Wolf,” he whispers. “I need you.”

He sits there for awhile, just feeling terrible, when a voice sounds from his right. “Excuse me, Governor?” He looks over, Diane does the same, and they both look at the elephant officer who had approached.

“Yes, Francine?” Diane replies.

“I’m sorry,” Francine says. “We need the two of you to leave. There’s… there’s another one.” She gestures to the cells as she says this.

Diane sighs. “Understood,” she affirms, and she takes Snake and starts moving him again. “I hope you guys can get to the bottom of this soon.”

Snake takes one last look at Wolf before the cell disappears from sight. He hadn’t really been expecting this visit to make him feel better, but it still made him feel far worse than he had anticipated. This whole situation hadn’t been resolved for awhile according to the police, and it was apparently only getting worse.

Would he ever get Wolf back?

Chapter Text

It’s a month and some change after Snake had visited Wolf at the ZPD. He’d finally been released from the hospital a few days ago. He likely would’ve been released earlier, but that little trip actually did him more harm physically than anticipated, so he took a little longer to heal. He still has very visible teeth and claw marks all over him that will take a molt or two to get rid of, and his eye will still take quite a bit more time to heal so he has to wear an eyepatch as well.

He was lying on the couch, feeling empty. He’d had to orient it correctly when he’d finally gotten back to the apartment. When the police had come to take Wolf, they hadn’t touched anything, which meant that everything was still a big mess. Snake had cleaned up the broken glass, the kitchen, and the laundry room, but he didn’t do much more than that. The lock and doorknob for the laundry room door were still busted, and dried blood marked parts of the floor and walls.

A knock comes from the door. Snake looks over, confused. Diane had long since left the city, and he wasn’t sure of anyone else who would want to talk to him. He slowly slides off the couch and slithers over to the door. He opens it, and is greeted by two bunny ears. He looks down and finds the bunny they’re attached to. “Oh, you’re that bunny cop,” he says. “Uh… Hopps? Officer Hopps?”

Officer Judy Hopps nods to him. “Yep, that’s me.” She sounds cheery enough, but Snake can sense an air of sadness hanging over her. He’s not surprised; the police still hadn’t made any progress, and more predators were taken in for going savage. “Is it alright if I come in?” she asks.

“Uh, sure.” Snake holds open the door and lets her inside, closing it behind it. “Go ahead and take a seat.” She hops up onto the couch and settles. Snake follows after her and coils on the other side, wincing a little from all the movement. He switches on the tv just to have some noise in the background. “So, officer, what’re you here for?” Snake couldn’t pretend that it wasn’t weird sitting next to a police officer, even though he’s been a good guy for a long time now.

Judy sighs. “I’ve figured it’s my responsibility to visit those who were attacked, give condolences and everything.” She balls her small paws into fists. “We just haven’t gotten anywhere, I need to be doing something.” She looks up at him now and says, “I’m sorry for what happened. We’re doing everything we can.” Snake can tell she really means the first part, but she’s forcing herself to believe the second.

“Thanks, officer.” Snake sighs now too. “I just miss him so much.”

“He’s your… boyfriend, right?” It clearly took her a second to remember.

“Yeah, yeah he is.” Snake feels some emotion well up inside him but he pushes it down. “We were here in Zootopia to spend some time together, just the two of us. Now we’ve been driven apart.” He has to look down to avoid the emotion rising and spilling over.

“There’s been a lot of that,” Judy says. She hits the couch in a small burst of frustration. “And so much if it is my fault. The city is tearing itself apart all because of what I said.”

Snake looked back over to her. He’d never seen someone look so frustrated and disappointed.

She takes a breath. “Sorry, this is supposed to be a visit for supporting you.”

“No worries, officer.” Snake studies her a bit. He’s interested that she doesn’t seem worried about him being a predator species, or even all that interested in him being a rarely seen reptile. He guesses that her own feelings are probably outweighing most other things right now. “Do you have someone?” he decides to ask.

She shakes her head. “I… I might’ve, but I drove a wedge between me and him too.” She sniffles.

Snake cocks his head to the side. “Is he a predator?”

“Yeah… yeah. A fox.” She stares off at nothing now, her eyes wistful. Snake is surprised a bunny would like a fox, but he gets the sense to not push her farther on it. He didn’t really want to be asked about what had happened with Wolf, only fair he extends the same courtesy.

Finally, Judy blinks and refocuses back into the moment. “I think I’ve intruded on you long enough,” she says, getting down off the couch.

Snake walks her over to the door. “I appreciate the visit, officer.” He means it.

She nods to him and gives a weak smile. Then she steps out and starts walking down the hall.

Snake watches her go. She’s halfway down the hall when he decides to speak up again, saying, “Hey, officer?” She turns. “Good luck.” Then he dips his head before retreating back into the apartment.

Coiling up on the couch again, Snake considers the little bunny cop. His recovery has kind of blinded him a bit to what else is going on in Zootopia, but thinking about it he can see why she feels responsible. It was her uncertain words at that press conference awhile back that had sparked so much animosity that might have otherwise been avoided. “What a time to have been here, huh,” he says aloud.

He sits up, wanting something to do. He hadn’t called the guys for a few days, which he realizes means they don’t know he’s out of the hospital. He grabs his phone, which miraculously didn’t get smashed in Wolf’s attack, and dials a video call to Webs. A couple seconds later there she is, yelling, “Guys, guys it’s Snake! Get over here.” She looks at the screen now and notices Snake. “Snake! Man, we are glad to hear from you again.” Shark and Piranha appear beside her, Shark having to awkwardly squish to fit on the camera.

“Hey you’re out of the hospital,” Piranha says. “That’s good.”

“Yikes, you weren’t lying about the marks being deep,” Shark adds. Snake was covered in bandages the last time they’d seen him, so they hadn’t seen the damage for themselves.

Piranha chips back in with, “I like the eyepatch! Makes you look cool.”

Snake smiles at his friends. He really should’ve been calling more often. They made him feel better.

“How are you doing, Snake?” Webs speaks again.

He sighs. “As well as I can,” he responds. “Only my eye still has to heal so I’m feeling okay physically.”

Webs gives him a probing and concerned look. “And mentally?”

That one stumps Snake a bit. He really wasn’t sure how he felt. He just felt, drained. The hospital had sapped so much energy, thinking about Wolf was painful, and the news was never sounding any better. It was really hard for Snake to remain hopeful. But he doesn’t want to worry his friends too much, he was already worried enough himself. “Could be better, obviously,” he finally replies. “But where’s the sense in wallowing in sadness, right?” He attempts a small smile.

Webs gives one back. She likely suspects he’s putting on a bit of a brave face, but doesn’t say anything. It’s obvious enough anyway, since he’s acting more genuine and sad which is far from his usual crabby and snippy self.

He talks to them a little longer, hearing about their own updates. It’s nice to see and talk with them. Hearing how much more active they are makes him want to get out of this apartment. He hasn’t left it at all since coming back, not even going out onto the balcony. Once he finally says goodbye to the gang, he opts to go out. It would be nice to get some fresh air, and the doctor said he should stay active anyway. He switches off the tv and slides off to the door.

Down in the lobby is where he passes some other people. He had been used to getting stared at all his life, but in this periciales circumstance it feels weirder. Most people in Zootopia hadn’t seen a reptile in person before, and here he was acting as a sort of representative for these people, covered in bite and scratch marks. They aren’t the judging or scared stares that had plagued him for so long before though, so he doesn’t really mind.

Out the front entrance to the apartment building, he starts slithering on down the sidewalk to the left. He takes in the fresh air as he goes along; it really does help. He’s aiming for a small park a block or so down, seems like a nice spot to relax and get some sun. He gets about halfway when a voice calls to him from his blindside.

“Why hello there sir!” Snake has to turn his head all the way to be able to see who’s talking. It’s a sly looking fox, who was currently holding up what was clearly a random piece of fabric at the entrance to an alleyway. “That eyepatch of yours is looking mighty fine, but don’t you know this is more in fashion?” He gestures to the fabric. Clearly his heart isn’t really in it.

Snake just rolls his eye. “I’m not about to get hustled for a tablecloth scrap, buddy. Besides, it’s obvious you aren’t even feelin’ this hustle.”

The fox sighs and puts away the scrap. “Pretty professional read of the situation, I take it you have experience.”

Snake does what counts for him as a shrug. “Wasn’t my forte, but I dabbled. I’ve left that well behind though.” He looks back towards the direction of the ZPD HQ. “With how close you are to the station I wonder if you don’t really want to be doing it either.”

The fox looks at him, clearly a little taken aback by how much information Snake was gleaning from this short interaction. He leans against the alleyway entrance. “Well sir, I must say you’ve got me pegged. Mr…?” He holds out a paw.

Snake shakes with his tail. “Snake,” he replies.

The fox let’s go and stares off in the direction of the ZPD. “You’re right Mr. Snake. I’m really only here to see if I can happen to spot someone.”

Things click into place in Snake’s head. “Ohhhh, you must be that fox that bunny cop mentioned.”

The fox’s gaze darts back to him. “You’ve talked to Judy? And she mentioned me?”

Snake chuckles. “Yeah, just earlier in fact. She said she’s visiting the attack victims.” He gestures to his many healed wounds. “My uh… my boyfriend is the one who went savage on me.” Snake looks away uncomfortably for a second before continuing. “I asked her if she had someone, polite conversation and everything, and she said she messed things up with a fox.”

The fox huffs. “Yeah, she did.” His expression softens. “I’m hoping she realizes and apologizes, but maybe that’s wishful thinking.” He stares off at nothing for a minute before looking back at Snake and saying, “I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. The name’s Nick. Nick Wilde.”

Snake dips his head. “Well, good luck Nick.”

Nick does a gesture with his fingers reminiscent of one Wolf does. “Good luck to your boyfriend and you.” He takes one last look in the direction of the ZPD and then turns around and makes his way down the alley.

Snake watches him go for a bit before turning back to continue his journey over to the park. In an ironic way, seeing other people struggling makes him feel better about his own worries. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t hope things improve for those two. If things improve for everyone, that means things would be improving for him too.

At least, he hopes.

Chapter Text

Over a month later now, Snake had been starting to lose hope again when he received the one call he desperately needed most. He was slithering quickly over to Zootopia General Hospital, where Wolf and the other savage predators were being cured and recovering. Judy and Nick had come through, exposing the former assistant mayor in the process. Turns out she was behind a plot to dart predator species with a serum made from Night Howlers, which drives them crazy and puts them into that savage state. The knowledge that it was entirely an outside force and nothing to do with Wolf inherently made Snake feel a lot better.

He was giddy as he made his way into the hospital. He had actually been there a couple weeks ago so they could check his eye, which now was all healed. Having two eyes again was pretty nice, and knowing that none of the wounds would last was comforting. “Hi, I’ve been told I can visit Mr. Wolf?” he questions the receptionist. The receptionist looks at his computer, scanning. He glances at Snake before looking back again; Snake guesses he probably decided there wasn’t much point in asking for his name. He gives Snake the room number and Snake heads off to the elevator.

Once on the right floor Snake zips down the hall. He slows as he gets to the room. He stops at the door and takes a deep breath. Then, he pushes his way in. Right there in the first bed is Wolf. Snake’s heart melts when he sees him. He looks tired and his fur was a mess, but he was himself. The terrifying monster that was pretending to be him was gone.

“Wolf!” Pure joy is in Snake’s voice. He isn’t sure he’s ever expressed anything this genuine and happy.

Wolf looks at him, the tiredness that was over his body was in his eyes too. “Hey, Snakey.” He smiles a little, but it seems forced. His eyes shift as he notices the marks all over Snake’s body and he looks back away. “I really hurt you bad, didn’t I,” he says, a heavy sadness in his voice.

Snake sidles up next to him. “You don’t remember it huh? You did do quite a number on me, but look at me, I’m all healthy now. Plus with a couple molts I’ll be looking shiny and new!” He does a little twirl as he talks, but Wolf doesn’t look at him. “Wolf?” Snake tries to lean into Wolf’s gaze but Wolf just turns more. “Come on, Wolf, look at me.”

“No!” Anger infiltrates his voice now, and Snake pulls back, shocked. “I- I can’t Snake I… I hurt you I can’t- I can’t forgive myself for that.” Wolf’s voice shakes with emotion. He looks upward, angry tears forming in his eyes. “The attack… being locked up… it’s all a fuzzy blur, but I remember it, I do, and- and- and I just, I don’t want to remember that.”

Snake is crestfallen. This isn’t the reunion he wanted with Wolf at all. He was expecting it to be a joyous moment, maybe with some crying, but happy crying. Not this.

“Wolf, it’s not your fault. I- I never once blamed you, really.” Snake tries to reassure him but Wolf shrugs it off.

“Maybe you should,” he says. “If not for the attack, for suggesting we come to Zootopia in the first place.”

Snake stares at him sadly. “Wolf I-”

“Just stop, Snake.” Wolf cuts him off. His angry tears are falling now. “Just- just leave me alone for awhile.” The words were like a dagger to Snake’s heart.

He slithers back over to the door, head down. He turns to the side to say one last thing to Wolf. “I’ll see you at the apartment.” Then he opens the door and leaves.

The walk through the hospital had seemed so short on his way over. Now, it felt like forever. A claustrophobic prison. The patients and nurses that he passes are all meaningless distractions. Emotions are starting to overwhelm him as he gets outside and starts heading back to the apartment building.

He bumps into a random tiger on the sidewalk and snaps, “back off, slick.” The tiger looks at him in surprise but keeps moving. Snake doesn’t care. He just keeps trudging on. He’s starting to angry cry by the time he’s getting into the building. His breathing gets more ragged, and it takes all he has to sit still in the elevator. It’s a relief when he gets to his apartment door; he doesn’t have to force himself to keep his emotions tamped down. He slams the door behind him, gets on the couch, shoves his face into a pillow, and screams. All his anguish and hurt out at once.

He lays his head down on it and takes big, unsteady breaths. He cries and stares at the blank tv screen. He had waited so long, so so long, for Wolf to come back to him. It had been so hard. The fear had been so constant and persistent. Being free from it gnawing at him had been euphoric. Now… now everything crashed down on top of him again. His own boyfriend couldn’t even look at him. What good was all that waiting and hoping if this is the result.

It’s evening now, and Snake hasn’t moved. He’s still a miserable pile on the couch. He hears the door open. “Snake?” Wolf’s voice floats over. Snake doesn’t respond, nor does he look over. He feels Wolf come over and sit down on the couch next to him. “Snake I… I’m sorry.” He sighs. “I had just woken up from what felt like a nightmare and- and I wasn’t thinking about how you must have felt.” Snake turns now so that Wolf is in his peripheral vision. Wolf goes on, saying, “I felt, scared, of myself and what I’d done. And then you were in front of me, living proof of it.” He puts his head into a paw. “I didn’t think at all about how this must have been for you. You were the one who was hurt, and I just pushed you away. What… what kinda boyfriend am I.” Snake watches as tears start sliding down Wolf’s paw.

Snake gets up now and pulls closer to Wolf, pulling Wolf’s paw away from his face. He looks Wolf in the eyes and says, “I told you Wolf, I never blamed you. The attack was never your fault. And I forgive you for back there at the hospital. I didn’t really think about how you would be feeling either.” He pulls Wolf into a hug, starting to cry again himself. He’s surprised he has any more tears after all this. “I… I missed you, Wolf.”

Wolf hugs him tight. “I missed you too, Snakey. I promise, I will never hurt you again.”

The two hold like that for awhile, just crying into eachother. It had been such a long time coming, for both of them. Snake hadn’t even been certain he ever would get Wolf back. The joy from earlier starts seeping back into him. “Thanks for coming back to me, Wolf.” He pulls back from the hug to look his boyfriend in the eyes. Wolf’s are still teary, but they’re filled with happiness now too.

He blinks them clear and says, “We should probably call the guys right? They’ll want to know I’m okay.”

Snake nods. “One more thing first, though.” Wolf tilts his head at him, and Snake answers the questioning look by grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him into a kiss. He puts a lot into it; all his joy, his pain, his sadness. Everything. Wolf does too. It’s a passionate kiss, long overdue. One that signals that they can start again, and that everything is gonna be okay.