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Raven’s pupils were razor-thin, lips pulled back, exposing fangs dripping with a mixture of saliva and blood. A low growl, rumbling from deep inside his chest cut through the air. His hands were locked in a dangerous curl, talons splattered with blood. His wings were fully opened, the down around his shoulders puffed up defensively. He crouched low to the ground.
There was carnage in front of him, the remnants of a poacher who’d gotten cocky.
His eyes were locked on the group beyond the gore, who stood at a distance, weapons raised against him. Waiting tensely for orders to crackle through their earpieces.
Raven, for all his show, was bleeding heavily. The wound on his side weeping blood down his torso, soaking his dark feathers, pooling on the ground around his foot. His breaths were shallow and raspy, breathing too deeply would knock the air out of his lungs. His rib must have been broken when the poacher kicked him.
Beneath him, still unconscious, was Harley. The bruise over his eye was an ugly purple-red against his rosy skin. There was a trail of drying blood on his chin from his split lip.
They would pay. The people who hurt Harley. They would pay with blood and flesh and bone. They tried to take Harley away from him.
Stole him.
Raven crouched lower, taloned feet tearing into the dirt, blood gushing from his side at the movement.
A single person wasn’t enough.
The leader of the group perked up, leaning his head slightly to the left, listening to his earpiece. His eyes narrowed as he lowered his weapon.
“We’re moving out. Boss’s orders.”
Raven watched the poachers, unblinking, as they all slowly lowered their weapons. A pair shuffled forward to gather the broken body of their coworker. Raven’s growl grew louder as they got close, shifting his wings to hide Harley from view. The poacher’s body gathered, the pair stepped back into line with the rest of the group. As orderly as they had appeared, they left.
Raven waited, still as stone, listening to their footsteps as they retreated into the forest until all he could hear was his heartbeat, which thrummed deafeningly up his right side.
Harley winced as he stirred awake, groaning at the ache from his bruises and the pull of the scab on his busted lip. The dirt against his face was cold and dry. Something warm landed on his cheek and he wiped it off, peeling his eyes open to find blood smeared on the tips of his fingers. The wave of coppery scent that crashed over him left him gagging -- the scent was oppressive and all-around him, drowning out any other smells. He looked up and saw dark feathers and a bare, bleeding torso.
“Raven?”
Raven’s eyes snapped to the man beneath him, pupils dilating, “Harley”.
His voice was more of a growl than his name but Harley understood him. Raven straightened up as Harley twisted around to sit up. He used one of his hands to push himself up and planted it directly in a puddle of cooling blood. Raven had lost too much blood. He was wobbling despite being crouched. Harley surged up onto his knees, wiping his bloodied hand on his chest, grabbing Raven’s upper arms to keep him sitting upright.
“You’re hurt,” Harley’s ears twitched, listening for the sounds of anyone nearby but the forest was quiet around them. “What happened? Where are we? How did you find me?”
“I followed them,” Raven slurred, feathers smoothing down at Harley’s touch. “Found you. Hurt.”
Raven raised a hand, cupping Harley’s cheek in his palm, the tips of his fingers grazing the bruise on his face. He was safe again. Harley was saying something but Raven couldn’t hear him. He blinked rapidly, trying to shake the fuzziness from his vision. Harley’s hands were so warm. Raven smiled softly before slumping forward into Harley’s arms.
“Oh god,” Harley adjusted his grip on Raven, pulling him up so his face was pressed against his shoulder. “I’ll get us somewhere safe. I promise.”
Harley dug his phone out of his back pocket, relief at still having it quickly overwhelmed by dread. They didn’t take his phone because they weren’t worried about him escaping. They abducted him to lure Raven out. To prove he was real. And it worked
Harley brushed a dark curl of hair from Raven’s cheek, tucking it behind his ear. He was out cold, he didn’t even twitch at Harley’s touch, which made panic swell in his chest. Recently, Raven had started leaning into his touch but now he was still. Deathly still. Harley held him closer as he called for help
---
Raven opened his eyes, tensing immediately at the unfamiliar room he was in. He whipped around, awakening dull aches from all over his body. The room was small, dominated by the bed he occupied. There was a window with a potted plant on the sill and thin curtains held back to let the sun in. He didn’t recognize anything about the room so he took a deep breath. For a moment he thought he caught the scent of something familiar but it was muddled by all the foreign smells. Bitter medicinal scents; raw herbs and ground roots. Under that, the scent of earth after the rain. It was almost soothing.
The creak of the door opening whipped Raven’s attention away from the window, feathers puffing instinctively. But it wasn’t a poacher who came into the room, it was Harley, carrying a tray of food.
“You’re awake!”
Raven’s mouth was hanging open. Questions were screaming through his mind but before he could work out anything coherent Harley was at the side of his bed. The tray of food on the bedside table.
“How do you feel? Hungry? Nauseous? Do you have a fever?” Harley leaned over, reaching to place his hand on Raven’s forehead. The bruise over his eye had healed green-yellow, the cut on his lip barely had a mark to remember it by.
Before Harley touched his skin, Raven’s arms were around his waist, pulling him onto the bed. He buried his face into Harley’s chest, taking gulping breaths of his scent despite the twinge in his ribs. He crushed Harley against him, breath shuddering out of his lungs. Harley wrapped his arms around Raven’s head, pressing his cheek into his curls.
“Why did you follow me?” he whispered, tears in his eyes.
“Had to,” Raven replied, loosening his arms around Harley’s waist, pulling his face back from his chest to look up at him. “I can’t lose you.”
Eventually, Harley would have to tell Raven that it was a trap. That they were in danger again. But they could talk about that later. Instead, Harley slid down into Raven’s lap, wrapping his arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.
“You won’t.”
Raven looped his arms loosely around Harley, resting his head on the smaller man’s shoulder, relishing in his scent and his warmth. In the sound of his breathing and his pulse. In his life.
He was back where he should be.
Close.
Within arms reach.
During his recuperation Raven kept Harley close, insisting that he sleep in his bed. They spent a lot of time sitting together in silence, always touching in some way. When they slept, Raven rested a wing on Harley, so he felt even the smallest movements he made while dreaming. Harley didn’t even think to fight it. He was still shaken by the abduction, so seeing Raven’s sleeping face, after waking from paralyzing nightmares, reassured him that they were safe.
They were glued together, from morning to night, as Raven regained his strength. When they spoke it was usually quietly to each other.
The healers who administered their medicine had a sense that they were on the run from something but they did not ask what pursued the pair. For that, both Harley and Raven were thankful. There weren’t any other places that would have taken Raven in, the healers at the temple cared for all the same, regardless of the patient’s circumstances.
That care was what saw Raven recovered in just over a month and a half.
---
Raven stretched his wings in the sun, the tips of his feathers trembling, stuck in a bed for that long made his whole body tense. He drifted back over to Harley, who was thanking the senior healer.
“There is nothing to thank us for, this is our path.”
“Still… and for…”
“Yes. Once you leave the grounds your names and faces will be forgotten by all who saw you.”
“Thank you.”
The senior healer smiled sadly, gesturing to the path leading away from the temple.
Harley nodded, thanking the senior healer once more, before hopping down the stairs, heading for the path that cut through the ancient trees that hid the temple from the rest of the world. Raven followed his lead, falling into step with Harley, close enough that their hands brushed together as they disappeared from view.