And We Also Fight: The Spinoff

 There was so much noise, so much chaos. Everything was like a deafening blur in his ears, so much so he had to tuck them back against his head to keep from getting a headache. Was this war? Was this what it was like?

 The adrenaline. The chaos. The feeling of triumph when your foe fell at your feet. It was like a high he was riding when the large female pig fell. The others were turning to new targets but he turned to Archon. He thought his friend was dead and yet here he stood, beaten and bloody but still standing with an anger he had never seen. He... he wanted to see the sensitivity again. But he knew that Sensitive Archon had no place in this bloody carnage.

 But Sensitive Hawking was making himself known.

 He felt like a lump was in his throat and his vision became blurry with unshed tears as he leaned his head down to hug the gentle boy. "I thought you were dead..." His voice, usually carefully controlled, threatened to break with joy and relief and trembled with those tears.

 Do not cry. Do NOT He chastised himself as his eyes closed. If he did that and just focused on the sweet brush of Archon's fur and that scent that he'd come to know like his own, he could almost forget about the chaos around them. There were so many wolves and so few pigs that he knew that this battle was close to being over.

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^^If Hawking had really thought that anything in the world could separate the bond that he and Hawking had shared, he was wrong. Dead wrong. Mr. Sensitive had gone; broken and beaten from the pigs and their tricks, and what had pushed through was an angry, aggressive canine.

He wanted blood. He wanted a real fucking meal, and he wanted to protect his little deer friend, even if that meant that Hawking would be angry at him for protecting him (again.) It would be worth it, if Hawking lived.

The female pig fell at their feet, while another wolf of interesting blues caught a tusk to the chest and fell to the ground. That could have been Hawking. That could have been him. It could have been anyone.

He stood, guarded, glancing over the carnage of war. The sounds of growling, snarling, pig squeals, and other pig sounds - he glanced over to Hawking with a hardened look in his eyes, making sure that Hawking wasn’t putting himself in danger like the warrior that he was, but what he found when he looked at his friend was not what he had expected.

When had the boys traded places? Archon’s eyes had hardened because he was angry, whereas Hawking’s had grown soft, and were teary eyed as he looked at Archon. He spoke words that had been Archon’s own fear: not his death, but Hawking’s. And looking over at the soft-antlered boy, Archon’s own eyes softened.

The deer came to drop his head, to hug him, and Archon re-adjusted slightly, affectionately bumping his head to Hawking’s, as he inhaled Hawking’s floral scent. He was quiet for a time, and then he pulled back slightly, still touching foreheads, but enough to look him in the eyes.

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“I love you.”

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 He felt the brush of fur on his forehead as, for just a moment, they pulled away from the chaos around them. They leaned into each other and then Archon said three little words. Three small but powerful words.

 Hawking opened his eyes, slate grate looking at the one in front of him. The one nestled between his antlers, the one who had grown so close to him over these months.

 The one he would have killed every single boar here for.

 He felt a wave of confusion wash over him, confusion coupled with a warmth. A lightness, an excitement. Why did he feel this way? He loved Harper. He loved Crux. He loved many things about life... but this... this felt different. New, exciting, and oh-so-very confusing.

 He remembered feeling drawn to Kore. Drawn to Miriam. Drawn to any she-wolf he thought pretty but he'd never known why. He'd never even given the feelings a second thought. It was just a pleasant thing, and they looked so pleasant to him for unknown reasons. Looking further was still just as confusing... Never before had he looked at another male wolf in the way that he looked at the she-wolves. Until, now. It was like blinders had been removed and he saw the world in different dimensions. At least, for this moment.

 And still yet, he knew he was a deer and that he shouldn't feel such dizzying sensations. That even if he found their company pleasant and that they looked beautiful to him, they were still two species apart no matter what he did. And yet... here he was face-to-face with Archon. Feeling like he could walk into hell with him and feel just fine as long as they were together. How, now that the world was just the two of them, how his friend looked just as beautiful as any of the other she-wolves he had seen.

 He knew without a doubt that when he replied, "I... I love you too." That it was true, because the thought of living in a world where his friend was not alive was not one that he wanted to be a part of. He could feel the emotions in his heart, throughout his whole soul, threatening to break him. He closed his eyes again, despite all of his frantic praying, the words that Archon spoke and his own dizzying thoughts allowed slow tears to leak out. "I'm so confused..." Because all of this was still so new to him.

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^^Archon knew love. He, too, loved his mother; he loved his fathers. He, too, would love his siblings, when they came. He loved the many people who had come to save his mother, and the many who had come to save him, and the rest of them from the boars - but the love he had for Hawking; the love he had always had for Hawking was a different level of love.

This level made him think of his parents. Olive was Tibdaddy’s, and vice versa; the way mothers and fathers loved each other. The way Valeska and her zombie wife loved each other. The way Archon had loved Hawking, he felt, matched those.

See, for Archon; there was always love. It didn’t matter if Hawking was a deer, or that he was a boy. Those trivial things had never really… mattered to someone like Archon, who just didn’t see why those types of things would matter.

Hawking was a deer boy who Archon loved, fiercely and passionately. He would go to the ends of the earth and back, to protect his love; to protect his… entire world, his Hawking. His fierce little warrior.

Hawking’s words caused Archon to smile; nervously and happily, tail wagging softly behind him as he licked over Hawking’s tears, though he was vastly unsure what he’d done to cause his love to cry, but he wouldn’t question it; wouldn’t dare break their moment with words.

Not yet; it was much too soon.

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 Archon said nothing, which, was perhaps for the best as what could there be to say? He was just uncertain for the future but for now? Now, he knew as the other boy dried his tears. He also knew, that this was no place to hang about for sentimentality.

 A boar fell and landed right beside his hooves. He glanced down, the creature was dead but it jogged him back to the present. He closed his eyes and took in a breath. One to steady himself as well as to take in Archon's scent. "Watch my blind spot? I'll watch yours." Silly deer, he didn't realize that wolves didn't have a singular blind spot but the sentiment was there. Watch my back and I'll watch yours.

 When he'd opened his eyes again, they were steeled against the emotion. Only a small wetness remained to remind them both of his moment of tenderness to Archon. He was ready to launch himself back into the fray.

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-exit/fade with your next post?

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^^In the silence, Archon’s own confusion arose for their future, if there was one. Just because they admitted that they loved each other, or for Archon, that he was in love with Hawking, didn’t actually mean that they would end up together. That Hawking would choose his heart over his pack - was that even possible for Hawking to do? To pick him over Elkshire? Over the Queen’s children? Ha, Archon knew he could never, in a million heartbeats, be so lucky.

Before, it had been a small, tiny voice in the back of his head. He had always found himself wanting to scream at him; wanting to coax him into coming with him. A voice, so small, that it could have been ignored, but now, it felt like that voice finally had a backbone.

Hawking asked his question, and Archon smirked. Did Hawking really have no idea what mountains Archon would move for him, or was he trying to be cute? “For you? Always,” Archon growled, protectively, launching himself towards the next boar as the larger, more capable wolves went for whatever was left of the King.

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