#steve and the wolf

[ailelie]

The Wolf now is Concerned. He isn't invested. He refuses to be invested in humans. Humans are food, not friends.

And yet. This utter sad sack needs help and Hairy McLumberjack is too busy fussing around with trees to do more than look in and tut occasionally.

And, it isn't like the Wolf can roam much. He had a serious surgery to get Steven out of his stomach. He needs recovery time.

It only makes sense that he recovers at Steve's. It's all Steve's fault anyway, if you think about it.

Steve is still mourning his relationship with Denise and dealing with his recent near-death experience. The latter would be easier if the cause of said-near-death experience hadn't decided to take over Steve's bed.

The Wolf is a demanding and infuriating roommate, but the more time they spend on bickering, the less time Steve has to feel sorry for himself. He ends up developing a new passion for cooking out of pure spite--he will prove to the Wolf that there are many better options for eating than 'raw human.'

"So raw my heart was literally still beating, Wolf."

"The better to warm my stomach, Steve."

It is when Little Red is visiting again, more than a week after the Wolf last felt a twinge of pain in his torso, that everything changes again.

"Mama said to invite you to dinner, Uncle Steve," Little Red says. "You can come, too, Uncle Wolf."

Steve and the Wolf meet each other's horrified gaze as they both realize the domestic comfort they've found and created in each other.

That night, long after Little Red has returned home, the Wolf says he's leaving and he goes.

For the first time in weeks, Steve doesn't have to share his bed.

(After the first few nights when the Wolf had claimed his bed, Steve decided he was not going to be forced to the couch again. They each dared the other to leave the bed if they were 'too uncomfortable' to share. Neither left. Neither ever admitted, in the weeks that followed, how nice it was to have someone else there.)

He can't sleep.

In the morning, he eats some berries for breakfast. Lunch is a leftover soup. Dinner is more of the same.

Cooking is less fun on his own, less fun when he doesn't have the Wolf stealing his ingredients and making sly comments from the side.

Meanwhile, the Wolf is in the forest and utterly refusing to admit that his rabbit is a bit gamey, that its flesh would be better shredded with a spicy sauce and served over whipped potatoes. He is a Wolf. He doesn't need cooked food. He doesn't want it.

The flesh and blood are warm in his mouth, but they do not heat his belly like one of Steve's stews. The forest is so unreasonably cold.

And lonely.

"He tried to eat me, Laura," Steve complains to his sister, Little Red's mother.

"From what I understand, he successfully ate you. That lumberjack cut you free, no?"

"The lumberjack! Now, he would make sense. He's handsome, right? Saved my life even. If I had to-- why couldn't I have--" the words won't come out. Steve's never been attracted to anyone male before.

Until the Wolf.

His face flushes bright red and his sister sighs. "You could do worse than that Wolf, Steve."

He buries his face in his hands.

The Wolf goes by the cabin when he knows Steve will be in town, attending the dinner Little Red had invited them to, the dinner that ruined everything.

The ice box has no ice and the plants inside are limp and shriveled. A stew pot, crusted with the dried remnants of broth, sits on the stove. Another pot is half-full with congealed oatmeal.

The Wolf refuses to feel guilty. He is a wild creature. He is not meant to live within four walls like some domesticated dog.

He washes the pots and tosses the ruined vegetables and herbs. It is during this last task that he runs into the lumberjack.

"Glad to see you're back" the Lumberjack says. "He's been missing you."

I'm not back, the Wolf wants to snarl, and, What business is it of yours? Instead, he says, "I don't belong here."

The lumberjack shrugs. "Well, I don't know about that. I think we belong wherever we love and are loved."

"So, what, you're having a love affair with a hundred trees? Do you chop them down after you break-up?" It isn't his best line, but the lumberjack laughs anyway.

"My love was turned into a tree and hidden in this wood. Someday I will find and free him from his curse. Until then, my job gives me more than enough time to search."

"So you're saying it could be worse," the Wolf says. "I could be in love with a tree."

The lumberjack's smile broadens and he nods. "Instead you're only in love with a man."

It is only then that the Wolf realizes what he'd said. The truth of it warms him inside out. "I'm going to go back inside."

He doesn't say he's going to stay. That's what he means anyways.

The next morning, carrying a basket of leftovers, Steve returns to his cabin. He is dreading being alone again, but he cannot live in his sister's house.

He wants the Wolf. He doesn't understand how or why the Wolf has become so important to him, but maybe that doesn't matter. He just wants that strange and frustrating beast back in his kitchen, his bedroom, his life.

He has decided to track down the Wolf just as he's opening his cabin door.

And the Wolf is there.

Glass shatters as the basket falls from his hand. The Wolf's coat is warm and musky under his hands and cheek. His snout presses cool against Steve's neck. His claws prick lightly along his back. Steve can barely think for the utter relief flooding through him.

"I'm back," the Wolf says, unnecessarily. He is holding Steve as tightly as Steve is holding him.

Neither can quite feel embarrassed by their reactions to one another given the other is reacting quite the same.

"Good," Steve says. "Stay."

"Wild creatures don't belong indoors," the Wolf warns. He wants to stay, but some fear lingers. He can only promise now, not forever.

Steve, though, is unconcerned. He steps back, looking his Wolf in the eye. He lifts a hand to his Wolf's maw and traces a thumb along the seam of his mouth, the same mouth and sharp teeth that had once devoured him. "Since when," he asks, "have you cared about arbitrary rules?"

The Wolf flicks his tongue against Steve's thumb. "Since when, indeed."

inspiration struck in a really, really weird way

[marvelilovebucky]

He just woke up after being the Winter Soldier, a version of him that he HATES, and trying to kill everyone in sight… and THE first thing he does is say “your mom” and bully Steve for being small

And people wonder Bucky Barnes is my favorite character

[white-wolf-actually]

That boy never minded his own business a day in his goddamn life.

[koko2unite]

cute wolf with cute wolf best ship

[nerd-elf]

Has this been made?

[shushmal]

Mike, trying to be an asshole: who’s the guy and who’s the girl?

Steve:

Eddie:

Robin: Steve is both the guy and the girl. Eddie’s the worm.

[meidui]

he was so sleepy🥺

[tomurastits]

Was it casual when you went 30 miles behind lines for me even though you didn’t know if I was alive or not?

Was it casual when you refused to fight me as well as dropping your shield? (Your only source of protection)

Was is casual when you shielded me from gunfire even though you knew damn well I have a bullet proof arm?

Was it casual when you defended me from the rest of the world when no one else would?

[definitelyincorrect]

Steve: Did you have to stab them?

Bucky: You weren’t there. You didn’t hear what they said to me.

Steve: What did they say?

Bucky: “What are you going to do? Stab me?”

Steve: That’s fair.

[lightsupluvr]

…and it’s just around the corner darling, cause it lives in me.

[piratefishmama]

okay but for one single night, Eddie Munson genuinely, with all his heart, believes that Steve is a werewolf.

Steve isnt a werewolf, Steve genuinely has nothing to do with this assumption, and has given no actual reason to make Eddie believe him to be a werewolf, other than the chest hair miraculously growing in so goddamn thick over the course of a few months and the whole. droopy puppy eyes thing he's got going on.

but this one specific full moon night. Eddie happens upon the most beautiful, big brown wolf which wanders into the trailer park looking for food.

it's actually a very lost and incredibly docile wolf dog that someone stupidly bred and let out, but he's very lost, and hungry, and the second Eddie gets a peek at those big brown, incredibly sad puppy eyes, he's calling the big baby Steve and thats that. Thats Steve.

until Eddie panics in the morning because the wolf didn't turn back and Dustin tiredly informs him that Steve is at work, what the fuck Eddie.

[stucky-headcanon-bot]

❤️‍🩹

[arkarti]

Oiled up William real!? 😳

I might have used the wrong oil idk

Twitter: X

[koko2unite]

wendell x cerberus 🐺💕🐺

[m-cristiny]

[incorrect-marvel-because-why-not]

Steve: Am I in trouble? Bucky: Take a guess. Steve: No? Bucky: Take another guess.