He didn't care that he was leaving big soggy pawprints in his wake, or that he hadn't closed the door to 'his' room.  He didn't care that he could hear people, if vaguely, and he certainly didn't care enough to look to see if anyone was watching.

He cared that he was cold, and his pelt was super heavy, and he was cold, and that he hadn't been this dully miserable in a long time.  Not even through this most recent winter.  He had to go back a few years, into the haze of 'not recently' and hope that he could pick out a specific time.

Or he could not do that.  He could just plod towards a memory that wasn't time specific.  Rather, it was place-specific.  He remembered a source of heat, a fireplace. Its fire was contained; he could tolerate it as long as it remained so. He'd fought off the edge of that fear. He could tolerate it as long as it was contained.

It was warm.  That was what mattered.

The scrawny, dripping wolf slunk into the mansion's living room and threw himself down in front of the depressingly small fire, carefully not looking at it even as he tried to find some warmth from it.  His fur clung to his skin and barely-covered bones in scruffy patches, but mostly it managed to make his paws look even bigger than they were, puppyish in their sprawl after his narrow limbs.

Abby was wondering the halls when she had spotted the wet spots. It wasn't uncommon for students to leave messes behind, and Abbigail had a habit of trying to keep things clean, mostly because she liked to walk around barefoot. Not that it did much good in the school. She rushed off to grab a towel and began to mop up the water. She followed the trail all the way to the living room, which was only populated by a few boys playing video games. Abby rolled her eyes at the boys but ignored them as they ignore her.

She pauses when she spots the wolf by the fireplace. Blinking her green eyes at the animal, she shook her head. There were weirder things she'd seen besides a wet wolf in the living room. Glancing around, the blonde preteen ran out, back to the halls and the linen closet. She grabbed several more towels before returning. She moved on quiet feet to the corner of the fireplace.

"Hi there," she whispered. It wouldn't do to scare them after all. "I'm Abby. I hope you don't mind, but you look cold so I brought some towels to help dry you. At least as much as I can."

It was strangely easier to talk to the animal, who was most likely another mutant, than speaking to her classmates. Either way, it was probably the most words Abbigail had said at one time in at least a week. She moved slowly, so as not to startle, and made a semi-circle of bunched up towels around the wolf. Then she began to pat at the wet fur.

"Once I get most of the water, I'll go look for some more wood. Sound good?"

Something interrupted his cold huddling daze. He'd almost drifted off, not cold enough to be at risk but miserable enough to zone out as much as he could. What was the something.

Footsteps.

Small footsteps.

The wolf dragged an eyelid open and blinked away excess water. There was a child nearby. A salty child. His eyes didn't tell him that; his nose still worked fine. Until he sneezed, anyway. He couldn't exactly smell while sneezing.

He sighed. What did she-

oh. She was saying what she wanted. She sounded like a kid who'd come across a soggy kitten huddling on her parents' doorstep. One of the nice ones. Not one of the mean ones.

Kittens had it easier than wolf-shifters. He'd been chased off more entryways than he could count, and certainly more than he could remember.

She'd probably get bored or intimidated soon enough, so Adder figured he'd just ignore her. Except then she was even closer, and touching him. His hackles instantly rose, as much as they could under the water weight, and he turned his head to stare her down.

It would have worked better if he hadn't caught his nose in a bunched-up towel.

She watched the wolf out of the corner of her eye. She knew that predators could go from docile to aggressive in seconds. Abby felt more than saw the wolf tense as she patted the fur. When the wolf turned to her... Well, tried to turn. His nose got caught in the towels she had put around him.

"Careful," she giggled, pulling the towel off his nose. "I'm not going to do anything but help you dry off. This is a safe place."

Abbigail wasn't positive the wolf was a mutant, but the possibility was high, so she went with it. A loud bang from the boys by the television caused her to look their way. She rolled her eyes as she watched the three boys wrestle.

"They're going to break something if they keep on like that," she huffed.

Adder squinted at the kid-who-smelled-like-salt. Salt and predator, in the faint way animal-ish mutants tended to. He shook his head once freed of the towel, carelessly splattering the area with water.

He wasn't some helpless little miserable baby, to be cooed over by soft hearted rich people. Those soft hearts didn't extend to half-grown predators with big teeth, and yet this kid seemed to have missed that lesson from her parents.

Sudden noise had his ears clamped under his paws and his teeth gritted. He clung to his form with every scrap of determination he had, and after a few pounding heartbeats the moment passed. He had a headache, but he had succeeded in not shifting.

He grumbled vague agreement with the girl. Maybe he should go break them up before they broke his ears.

Abby looked at the wolf when she heard him grumble. She took in the wolf's paw covered ears. Abbigail set the towel in her hands down and stood up. With the same quiet steps, she moved to where the boys were messing around.

"Could you guys keep it down?"

"Huh?" one of the boys questioned. The blonde recognized him from one of her classes. Luckily it caused the other two to pause in their game.

"There are some of us with sensitive hearing," she explained.

The boy looked around her at, what she guessed, was the soggy wolf. He nodded before pulling his friends back onto the couch. "We'll keep it down."

"Thanks Jeff," she grinned.

As she moved back to the fireplace, she spotted the wood pile on the opposite side of the fireplace of where she had been seated. She circled the wolf to get to the pile. It wasn't the first time she had tended to a fire, though it was usually a campfire, but she knew what to do. She was careful as she tossed the new fuel onto the dying flames.

"Can I keep patting you down? Or would you like to dry off by the fire?" she asked while she sat down in her previous spot.

Kid was such a bleeding heart. Good thing she was here, and not trying to fend for herself. She'd probably last a day before giving everything she had and desperately needed to someone totally taking advantage of her. Probably end up the pet of some gang or something, although they probably wouldn't make her work streets until she were older. They didn't advertise the laws they broke that bluntly.

He shifted as she came back, watching her but lacking the energy to do more than follow her with his eyes and chin.

As the fire grew, though, his shifting took on a faintly uncomfortable air. He didn't back away from the flames, but their movement took up more of his attention as he examined the edges and watched for escaping tendrils of heat. The slightest implication that it was going to escape and he was gone, soggy and cold or not.

Oh, salt softy was talking again. He flicked an ear at her. She was going to do whatever she wanted, so why bother trying to answer her? If she got annoying enough, he could probably scare her off with a growl. Or just leave. Leaving would leave him cold but would remove him from the worrisome fire as well.

Abbigail sat in silence, waiting for a wolf to acknowledge her.

...Why wasn't she doing anything. This was not the reaction he had expected.

Fine.

Adder gave his tail a totally-not-actually-asking-to-be-petted-shut-up-or-I-will-rip-your-face-off swish, which probably came across as more of a harrumph swish, and twisted just enough to thwap salt softy with the back of his head gently.

Abby giggled when the wolf thumped his tail and nudged her with his head. She picked up one of the towels and started rubbing at the fur on his head.

"How did you get so soaked anyway?" she wondered aloud. "Those puddles didn't seem to come from any of the ways outside. Did you take a bath or something? Well, probably not since you're still wet. And you came down here."

Abbigail rubbed gently at his ears to get any water caught inside them. She was still talking softly. "I'm honestly not this chatty normally," she admitted. "But it seems a little strange to do this in complete silence. Though that sounds a little weird. I know you're probably a shifter, so you understand my rambling. I'm a shifter too, kinda. It's only my legs that change, into a tail. I've caused a few people to freak out. Usually because they think I'm an actual shark."

Why did she have to start with his head? Adder tried to keep his ears out of the way of the rubbing, and to keep an eye on the room, but salt softy kept moving all the skin on his head and it pushed his ears around and shoved his eyes closed whenever she rubbed in that direction.

He was not impressed by this situation, but he let her keep going. His head did feel less cold now, after all. She should hurry up and finish with the rest of him. Then she could stop rubbing and he'd be not-cold. That was the best scenario by far.

...also apparently the insides of his ears were ticklish, and Adder found himself shaking his head to escape the sensation. He snorted and eyed the girl, and then pointedly lay his head back down with his ears flattened so she couldn't do that again. That was excessive, little salt softy. Shark? He knew the word but he'd never met a shark before. He understood the people freaking out part, though, and yawned to show his teeth. Yeah, people freaked out at him too.

Abby giggled as the wolf shook his head. Having water in her ears was never fun, which was way she did it first. And her Aunt always said to dry her hair first. Though that would be a little hard considering he was covered in fur. When he flattened his ear, her giggles just restarted.

"I won't touch them again. You're safe from the mean little girl," she got out through her giggling.

Her eyes widened at his yawn and show of teeth. A part of her, which she knew was her mutation mostly, wanted to bare her teeth back at him. So she did. They weren't as big as his, but they were noticeable. And sharp. And probably the reason she didn't have any friends.

"Those don't really scare me. I've been attacked by an actual shark," she told him, showing her scarred arm. "See? Coulda lost my arm. But my mutation activated because of it. Sometimes I wonder if I could've been a different animal. Ya know, if it was a different animal that attacked me?"

She started rubbing at his front paws, wanting him to have a dry place for his head to rest. "My mommy and daddy died then," she admitted sadly. "My mutation is what saved me. I don't know how long I was out in the open water before the fishermen found me. One of them took this," she picked up the shark tooth necklace, "from my arm. After that, I don't really think you can scare me."

She paused to think about what she had said. "Well, I'm sure you could, but right now you just look like a drowned rat," she giggled.

Definitely a complete softy. Those were the sorts of people who called themselves mean like that. He did kind of want to give her a thumbs up for the teeth, though. Nope, not going to shift and be even colder.

Her continuing chatter helped distract him. He flicked his muzzle towards her throat with his upper lip lifted just enough to show he was indicating teeth going there; an attack there would be far worse than a grip on an arm. Arms healed far more readily than throats, and she didn't have a ruff to protect hers.

Paw-rubbing felt almost as weird as head-rubbing, and Adder looked away from the girl to watch what she was doing. He stretched his paws a bit, and absently lifted the one she was working on so she could dry the underside. And then quickly stuck his head off to the side so it would be harder for her to see him bite the side of his lip. Dead parents too, huh? Just with water rather than fire.

"I am not a drowned rat!" he said abruptly, and then paused and looked down. The hand caught in salt softy's towel was very much human and not wolf now.

...

Er.

Well, at least he was wearing his clothes.

Except they were really, really cold and there was now a lot of air on his skin. Vests didn't keep his arms warm but it was what he had.

Suddenly the paw was a hand. Abbigail blinked green eyes at the now towel wrapped hand.

>>"I'm not a drowned rat!"

Abby turned her eyes from the hand to the face. He was still soaked. All of him. With a squeak she dropped his hand. The wolf that was easy to talk to was now a person. She had been touching them. Before she could panic, Abbigail took a deep breath in. Held it for a few seconds. And let it out.

"Hi."

Adder looked away from salt softy's expression, stung more than he cared to admit at her reaction. Without another word, or looking back at her, he drew his wolf form around himself once again. Always one or the other, wasn't it?

There never seemed to be space for people who weren't just one thing.

... she was still there, even if she'd let go. When she squeaked out a word instead of simply sound, he peeked back at her. Hi? He hadn't just arrived. He'd just changed what he looked like. Wolf was still wolf, even when wolf was less wolf.