As Faun trudged down a wide, well trodden path beside the human, exhaustion started to set in.
His limp was more visible now, he had hurt his leg but there was no time to rest up enough for it to heal up and he hadn't been getting any nutrition either.
His right leg was starting to throb painfully, the awful human from earlier had worsened the state of his hurt.
He swallowed back the pain though, pushing himself to keep up with Declan even as sweat beaded down the sides of his face.
Declan didn't notice this, he had picked up his grocery bags which were untouched thankfully and was hurrying on to his cottage.
The cottage was just ahead, a big, cosy residence nestled between the trees.
Declan's overcoat covered up the injury but Faun could feel the blood trickle down his leg, he was barefoot because shoes were a waste of time.
They got to the front of the house and Declan opened up the door and went straight in, dropping off the groceries before realising that Faun hadn't followed him.
Declan lifted a brow at this, coming over. "Come in, Faun." He directed, accentuating each word in case the hybrid wasn't very bright.
Faun just stared back at him, hazy pain in the soft green depths of his eyes, he tried to do as Declan said but his legs stopped listening to him.
He started to get dizzy, the world going in circles around him.
Declan frowned when the hybrid weaved on his feet, he stepped forward just as he went over, catching him before he did.
His frown deepened at how insubstantial Faun's weight was, had he fainted from hunger?
He took the hybrid to the spare room after shutting the front door, he laid him out on the bed and just stared down at him.
He had his ripped pants on so Declan could safely check him over for injuries just to get that out of the way.
Gently, he parted the overcoat, his eyes instantly drawn to the injury on one of the hybrid's thin legs. It was a little too much to miss.
He winced at the blood that had streaked down, he wasn't a doctor but he could safely guess that the hybrid's bleeding leg was probably a major factor in his fainting spell.
He looked over the rest of the hybrid's body as quickly as he could manage, all the while telling himself that he wasn't a pervert.
Thankfully, other than the occasional bruise here and a scratch there, there was nothing else to worry about.
Good thing he had a first aid kit, he hardly needed it but he had to keep up with appearances.
Declan stopped at the doorway to glance at Faun, his fiery red hair was splayed against the sheets, a furrow between his brows like losing consciousness did very little to save him from the pain.
Why was he doing this?
He was the last person to care about morals but he couldn't turn the little hybrid away.
He would just take it as a social experiment, it wasn't like the hybrid would be around for long.
He came back with the first aid kit, at least he was pretty good with dressing an injury.
Faun flinched slightly when he tried to wipe the injury, it looked like a deep cut made by something very sharp.
As a hybrid it meant that he had accelerated healing so although it was a deep cut, it was an uncomplicated injury that should have long started to heal up by now.
But it almost seemed to be infected which was more than a little worrisome. The last thing he wanted was to have to take the hybrid outside the cottage with him.
He would have to do just that if it didn't get better though, he wasn't about to have a murder on his hands just because he was an introvert.
Declan bandaged up the injury and for some reason went to get a bowl of warm water and a cloth to wipe the hybrid down with.
He had decided that constantly fighting with himself in his head was going to get him nowhere, he still had to make dinner so the sooner he finished up here the better.
He wiped up Faun as best as he could, noticing when he was done that he was now asleep, the furrows on his brows smoothening out.
Declan cleared up the room and headed straight for the kitchen, stretching as he did. It was quite late and he hadn't even gotten started on dinner yet.
Biting back a groan, he got down to work.
It was better he treated Faun's injury as soon as possible because the hybrid needed to be gone before his Editor showed up.
Isla was a real piece of work, he didn't even want to know what she would get into if she saw the hybrid and hopefully, he wouldn't have to.
Dinner was ready in no time and he ate alone, just like he always did.
He sat in the living room, playing some random action movie on the television for ambience.
His thoughts were filled with the current scene in the novel he was currently writing, he would have to get some work in this night before bed.
He was never going to admit to Isla that he wasn't a writer.
What had happened was, when he newly moved into Oakwood, he bumped into her and while they were having a friendly conversation that was all of her doing, she asked what he did and he went right with his gag of saying he was a writer.
He hadn't expected her to be a nosy Editor and just like that, he became a writer for real.
He had to admit, it wasn't as terrible as he had been expecting and now he even had a novel under his belt.
It was the second one he was currently working on, Isla planning to work him to the bone because of how well his first book did.
Writing wasn't terrible, it gave him something to do and he didn't need to leave his cottage to do it.
So after dinner, he settled down in his workspace, firing up his laptop to get some writing done.