Work Text:
“Oscar!” The red-haired teen shouted into the forest. “Oscar!”
He knew that yelling was probably a bad idea. Yes, that group of nut cases had run off but he didn’t know if they would come back or if there were any stragglers wandering around looking for the older man that had been with him.
“Oscar!”
But, damn it all, he couldn’t just peek behind trees and whisper for the guy, that would take far too long and he had no clue if Oscar was alright.
“Oscar!” Cliff sprinted over fallen branches and jutting roots, eyes scanning in a not frantic manner for the man that was definitely not his friend. Cliff wasn’t that worried over Oscar. A healthy concern for the man was more accrete. And besides that, even if the two weren’t exactly friends he didn’t want to find the guy dead or maimed or bleeding out all over the forest floor while crazy wolves tore into….
“Oscar! Are you out here? The wolves are gone!”
Cliff made a slight turn, moving past a large cluster of bushes.
Something grabbed his ankle, “AH!”
Cliff jumped away, body tense and ready for another fight. Until he saw his attacker was a brown haired man with glasses crawling out from under the brushes.
“Shit! Don’t do that!” Cliff lowered his arms a bit, letting some of the tension release from his shoulders. “I’ve been looking everywhere! I thought you were dead man! Something spooked those wolves and they ran off.”
“GIANT TALKING BEAR!”
Any of the tension that had bleed out of Cliff snapped right back when Oscar suddenly launched himself up and grabbed the younger’s arms, “Hey, touching. Touching! Stop.” Cliff pushed Oscar away. It wasn’t a hard push, any idiot could see that Oscar was panicking and shoving a panicking guy was a pretty poor move. Oscar’s eyes were wide behind his glasses, hands shaking slightly as they gripped the red jacket on Cliff and his breaths came in rapid pants.
“Stop!” Cliff repeated, hoping that Oscar would calm down because Oscar’s panicking was starting to make him panic.
But Oscar didn’t stop, he kept rambling, “And little jack o’ lantern face people! And spiders.”
Cliff frowned as he pushed a bit harder, forcing Oscar to step away and drop his arms, “Hey, you…uh…” Cliff was far to out of his element to be comfortable.
Oscar blinked owlishly and started to sway on his feet, “The cave was…full…they…all…”
“Dude!” Cliff yelped when Oscar suddenly tipped forward. His arms snapped up to catch the man before he hit the ground. “…uh…” He lightly shook Oscar but the man reminded limp, limbs dangling and neck lacks. Everything around was silent, save for the rustle of leaves and Oscars heavy breathing.
“Shit.” Cliff hissed as he crouched, lowering Oscar down as carefully as he could. “Hey! Come on dude, wake up!”
Oscar didn’t move.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Cliff groaned. “There is no way I am carrying you all the way back to your place.”
Oscar didn’t reply, he just breathed. Deep, steady and slow.
Well, at least he wasn’t panicking anymore.
Cliff groaned again, “You owe me for this.”
He shifted around, doing what he could to keep Oscar upright and turn himself around so that his back was to the older mans front. He slung Oscars arms around his shoulders, trying very hard not to grimace at the uncomfortable amount of touching. He rocked forward and stood.
Actually lifting and walking with Oscar turned out to be a bit trickier then Cliff had thought it would be. For one, Oscar was a good bit taller then Cliff, so his feet dragged unhelpfully against the ground when Cliff tried moving forward. Plus he was heavy.
“What do you eat man? Bricks?”
Oscar, of course, didn’t answer.
Cliff huffed and crouched down. He stood on all fours so he could balance Oscar before shifting into his wolf form. With the weight of Oscar distributed on four legs it was much easier to move forward without staggering.
“You better not fall off or I’m dragging you back!”
Silence.
“Right.” Cliff growled, ears flicking back slightly.
He kept his pace slow, much slower then he was used to going. A part of him wished he could run, but running was probably a bad idea when the person he was carrying couldn’t hold on.
The air was mostly silence, ears swiveling around whenever something disturbed the peace of the forest. Birds, small animals and, more often then not, a slight breeze made Cliff ears twitch and cock his head slightly. He couldn’t hear anymore signs of crazy wolves, which was a relief.
A low groan made Cliff stop and twist his head around, “Hey, Oscar, you awake?”
Oscar moaned again and shifted slightly before going still again.
“….Of course you’re not.” Cliff growled, ears flattening as he continued to walk.
It took longer then it really should have to get back to Oscars house then Cliff liked but they did make it eventually. He switched back to his human form before stumbling up the steps.
“….how am I supposed to get in?” Cliff growled and kicked the door.
The motion threw off his balance and forced Cliff to crouch down or risk dropping Oscar down the porch steps. He twisted around so that he was facing the man, “Okay, where are your keys?”
A quick pat down of Oscar’s jeans revealed a small ring of keys in the front pocket. Cliff hooked one arm around Oscar’s middle and pushed up until he could jam the keys into the lock. It took two tries before the latch clicked and Cliff was able to swing the door open.
The teen sighed in relief when, finally, he dumped Oscar onto his couch.
He stood there for a moment, catching his breath and watching the man sprawled out on the couch. “….agh, just…wake up already.” Cliff crossed his arms and growled, as if it would rouse Oscar more quickly. It didn’t.
What did happen was a chill suddenly filled the room, making a small shiver run up Cliff’s spine. He turned around and came face to face with a ghostly figure.
The ghost gasped and drew back slightly, hands coming up to cover her mouth, “I…is he alright?”
Cliff blinked a few times, eyes sweeping over the ghost briefly, “…I’m guessing you’re the math genius from nineteen-forty haunting the house.”
The ghost nodded, “Er, yes, yes. I’m Sylvia Snyder.”
“Cliff. And he’s fine.” Cliff gestured to Oscar. “Just….tired.”
Sylvia nodded as she floated over to Oscar, reaching down to carefully pull off the man’s glasses, “What happened?”
“Ran into a bit of trouble,” Cliff’s eyes traveled over the room before landing on Oscar’s phone sitting on an inn table. He picked it up and flopped down in an armchair. “He’ll be fine, he was making noise on the way back.”
As if on cue, Oscar shifted and made a low noise in his throat.
“Oscar?” Sylvia leaned over the man.
Cliff couldn’t see her face at the angle he was at, awkwardly craning his neck over the arm of the chair, so he turned to the phone and opened up the contacts.
“He’s fine. It’s fine. Everything is fine.”
Despite his mental mantra, Cliff didn’t fully ease his muscles until he heard Oscar’s voice reply to Sylvia’s quite prodding.