Work Text:
Etho was outside his cabin, deep in the woods, checking the traps he had set earlier that week, checking to see if they had caught anything yet.
This has been Etho’s thing he does, every few days, bring home meat and furs for himself and his husband.
He moves some brush out of his way and he sees a small fox, stuck in one of his traps, a wire around its leg, keeping it stuck.
Obviously the fox is still a kit, still young, accidently coughing in Etho’s trap.
The human walks over, trying not to spook the small little thing, planning on letting it go free, still young, still with some life left to live.
As he gets closer, the thing starts to yap loudly, trying to get away from him, but it’s tied up leg trips it.
It makes a screaming noise, staring right at Etho.
“Hey, it’s okay.” Etho says, “I’m going to get you out of that, okay?”
He gets closer, slowly crouching down and reaching out for the fox’s leg.
It lets him take it’s leg, still doing the screaming yap noise.
Etho loosens the wire with calloused hands, trying to pull it off the fox’s leg.
It growls at him and in a flash, bites his left hand.
Etho gasps sharply in pain, his blood slowly running down his hand that was bit.
He quickly pulls the wire off its leg and it runs away quickly, happy to be free.
Etho stands up, holding his injured hand, watching the little fox run away.
He can’t be mad at it, all it was doing was trying to protect itself from something it saw dangerous.
Etho sighs, looks like he’s heading home a little earlier than he planned.
The white haired human pulls a rag he had in his pocket to wipe off his hands if he needed to after emptying a trap, and wraps it around the bleeding bite on the side of his left hand.
He walks home, which takes around 10 minutes.
Etho opens the cabin door, being hit with the smell of warm spices.
Bdubs did say he was going to be making some cookies for later.
As he’s walking inside, someone walks out a few feet in front of him, dressed in a cooking apron, “Why are you back so early? Are you okay? Did something happen?”
“Yeah, I just got bit.” He says, “a little fox was in one of the traps and I let her go.”
“And she bit you?”
“Yeah.”
“Etho.” Bdubs says, shaking his head, “I’ll get the first aid kit.”
Bdubs disappears again.
Etho goes in that direction, following his husband into the kitchen.
Bdubs pulls the first aid kit from one of the cupboards, having to use the little stool Etho made for him a few years ago, to reach to the top shelf where Etho had put it last.
It’s kinda cute, watching his husband desperately reach for the first aid kit, a little too short to reach it on his own before giving up and getting the step stool he’s using right now.
Once he has it, Bdubs shuts the cupboard, getting down and putting it on the kitchen island.
Etho gets into one of the two bar stools there, sitting down, putting his injured hand out for his husband.
Bdubs opens the kit, pulling a few things out before unwrapping Etho’s hand.
The shorter man gets a clean rag, wetting it and cleaning the blood trails off Etho’s skin before grabbing an antiseptic wipe to clean out the bite itself.
After the wound is clean, Bdubs puts some gel onto the wound that is supposed to keep it dysinfected, and finally puts a few gauze pads on it, taking a bandaged, gently wrapping it around Etho’s hand, tight enough to keep it in place, but loose enough to not cut off Etho’s circulation.
Bdubs presses a light kiss to Etho’s hand, “I love you, Etho.”
Etho smiles as Bdubs puts his hand back down, putting the unused suplies back, closing the kit and throwing out the trash, and throwing the rag into the sink to get washed later.
After that, Bdubs grabs two cookies off the counter, grabbing his barstool, dragging it closer to Etho, and sitting in it, handing his husband a cookie.
Etho lowers his mask (he only wears it when he leaves the cabin now, completely comfortable around Bdubs), taking a bite of the warm cookie, enjoying the way the ingredients come together nicely.
When his cookie is gone, Bdubs is still nibbling on his.
Etho reaches out, cupping Bdubs’ cheek with his left hand.
The shorter man lowers the rest of his cookies, looking up at his husband with big, bright, loving, warm brown eyes, leaning into Etho’s palm.
A warmth grows in Etho’s chest, he loves Bdubs more than anything else.
He leans forward, pressing his lips to Bdubs’, whispering, “I love you, Bdubs.” softly against them, brushing his thumb over Bdubs’ cheek.