She stops at the lunchbox and lowers her head to carefully pick up one of the dumplings.

Baekhyun gapes for a second, but then the realisation dawns on him. He fights the urge to crawl to her and squeeze her in the most protective embrace he's even given anyone. Instead, he observes.

He watches as she gingerly grasps the dumplings between her teeth and takes small bites, savoring the taste and the fact that she has food she didn't have to fight for. She stands at an angle, where Baekhyun has the view of her backside, where her tail hangs comfortably instead of being tucked under her belly in fear, and her whole left side. He takes in the dirt clinging to her black coat and small twigs and leaves hanging off her belly, where they got caught in the matted hair. Her silhouette is just as he remembers it from their first meeting - skin hanging loosely in places where she used to have more fat and muscle, bones poking out angrily, as if about to pierce her skin. He can clearly see not only her ribs and hips, but also the bones connecting her legs to her spine. He worries his bottom lip between his teeth.
 

Baekhyun stands up, even though his legs are still quite weak from the wave of emotions that is now slowly receding. He catches her glace when he moves, but she comes back to eating a moment later, so he proceeds to gather his things and prepare for the trip back home. After checking the time, he is happy to find that it's still before 9AM. It feels at least like noon, with all that happened.

He turns to her and is surprised to find her sitting next to the lunchbox, now fully facing him, waiting. He smiles.

"It's still early, if we leave how we should make it to the house before-" he stops when his eyes drop to the container.

It's still half-full.

"Aren't you going to finish that?" he asks, taken aback. He thought the food would be gone within seconds, with how hungry she must be. But she just pushes the lunchbox towards him with her nose. "I won't eat more, you need it more than I do, love."
 

But she only nudges the box again and paws at the lid soon after. Baekhyun furrows his brows.
 

"You want me to pack it up? Why?"

She huffs at him, as if urging him to hurry up, and turns left, about to disappear in the bushes and go north, deeper into the woods. Baekhyun nearly trips following her.

"Wait! We need to go east, that's where the pack lives!" he calls after her, but she merely huffs at him again and starts walking.

Stuffing the food into his already full backpack proves to be quite a challenge, when he's already half running behind her. A sudden thought of losing her in the forest, just when he manages to gain a little of her trust send an adrenaline rush into him and he pushes in between the bushes behind her, paying no attention to sharp twigs poking his body a little too hard.

But he worried for nothing, he finds, because she waits for him just behind the shrubs. He stumbles out ungracefully and she briefly sniffs the air, as if checking for something. He frowns again, but she simply moves on quickly.

It clicks a few minutes later and Baekhyun finds himself more energised than ever.

Shifters can smell blood. She was making sure he was okay after squeezing through twigs and branches. Her thoughtfulness erases any questions he might have about following her deeper into the woods.
 

Times passes quickly as he shadows the wolf, his heavy and clumsy footsteps seeming even heavier and clumsier when compared to her graceful half-jog. Baekhyun spends the long minutes (hours?) trailing his eyes down her body, preparing strategies to get her to be as beautiful on the outside as she is on the inside. A bath would definitely be a first step, even though he's not sure if suggesting a shampoo for dogs would be wise ( considering the texture of her fur) or insulting (it is a shampoo for dogs). He would gladly spend hours running his fingers through her coat, ensuring that all the dirt is gone, before gently brushing through it with a comb and cutting off the patches that could not be saved. He could-
 

One second Baekhyun is walking, and the next he's on his hands and knees on the undergrowth, his left knee stinging like a motherf-
 

A cold nose is in his face in an instant, a soft whine reaching his ears. He can't help the childish giggle that escapes his lips as he pushes her muzzle away with a sand-covered palm. She dodges his touch and comes back to his face insistingly, sniffing with a new-found fervor and evergy he hasn't seen from her yet.
 

"I'm okay, I'm okay, don't worry" he manages, half-laughing. "I wasn't looking where I was going. It's my fault."
 

Gingerly, he rolls his body to the side to sit on the ground and inspect when probably is a nasty scratch on his leg. The ripped fabric over his knee only assures him in his suspicions, but he still has to grab the frayed edges of the material and slowly, delicately, tug them away from his skin to see the scrape. And then he can't see it at all, because the wolf's head blocks his view.
 

"Hey, it's fine, it doesn't hurt much."
 

But his words fall onto deaf ears, because she still sniffs at the wound, blowing cold her onto the burning patch of skin with every exhale. Baekhyun sighs.
 

He stands up, not afraid to put the pressure on his left leg, because it really doesn't hurt much and barely even bleeds. The wolf doesn't look convinced until he straightens his back and puts his hands on his hips, waiting for her to continue. She does.
 

Baekhyun pays attention to his surrounding this time around, even though his thoughts run away from his from time to time. Trying to figure out where he is would be useless, considering the fact he zoned out before, so the only thing to do is... trailing behind her. He doesn't mind.
 

She doesn't look back to see if he's still there and Baekhyun assumes she doesn't need to. She can most definitely hear him, probably smell the blood drying on his jeans. Her ears are turned his way, careful to catch any whine or complain that might leave his lips. He makes sure to steady his breath, she can probably hear those too.
 

It takes his mind a second to catch up with his eyes when she slows down and he nearly bumps into her, catching himself at the last moment. Baekhyun notes they are now on the foot of a small hill, barely a few meters in height, but big enough to block the view of the forest behind him. The wolf turns to look at him, finally, and Baekhyun can clearly see in her eyes that this is the last moment she can change her mind. He prays she doesn't.
 

"I'm with you."
 

He's not sure if the word will be any help, or if they just sound like a pathetic plea for her trust, but he did nothing to stop them and he's not about to start regretting them.
 

She huffs, decision made, and throws her head in the direction of the top of the hill. It's a prompt for him to move. He does