Xaviers!

Leo had spent the last half hour getting the taste and smell of blood out of his mouth. He had mostly succeeded, praying only another feral would notice. He had lost control, attacked another student, and he didn't know what to do.

Ainsley. He needed Ainsley now more than ever. And so there he was, in shorts and a gray tee-shirt still covered in forest detritus, knocking on his boyfriend's dorm's door in the middle of the night, not caring who else he woke up.

Ainsley answered, and immediately concern set into his face at the somber, disheveled mess of a boyfriend.

"What happened?"

"I... I screwed up..." he said shakily.

He followed Ainsley in, head hanging in shame. It was clear he was reluctant to put what was bothering him into words.

It took him a moment to gather his courage before he said, "I... I went out into the woods to get in touch with my inner beast and ended up napping. When I woke up there was this deer in the clearing in front of me. I... got this crazy idea to see if I could catch it. I did, but it kicked me in the face and got away and I saw red and..."

He took a shaky breath before continuing, growing distraught, "... next thing I knew I... I had my jaws around its neck and my mouth was full of blood and its neck snapped and I thought I killed it but then it turned into Will and he turned into a bird and flew off."

"I... Lee, I attacked another student," he said, shaking with the stress of retelling what happened.

"Alright first off, let's breathe." Ainsley was very good at physically showing Leo how to calm himself internally, in through the nose, out through the mouth, in a slow pattern.

Leo focused on breathing, impending tears drying up for now.

"I thought I was gettin' the hang of bein' like this," he said more calmly, though his more pronounced accent showed he was still pretty upset.

"I know..." he answered.

With a sad sigh, he said, "I feel like such a monster."

"If they even think about it at all?" he added uncertainly.

"Precisely." Ainsley added, reaching out to help Leo right some of his hair which seemed to have been jostled in his emotional state.

It also had a few leaves a small twig in it.

He smiled, weakly but warmly. "I'm lucky to have you."

"Yea, I know. I'm pretty great." He said, picking out the nature bits and placing them in his cupped hand.

"The best," he chuckled.

He looked down at the growing collection of forest stuff in Ainsley's hand. "Gotta say, not gonna be surprised if there's a squirrel in there."

"... I need a haircut."

"Squirrels are good people. Everybody always picking on the poor blokes." He said, doing a once over to make sure he got everything he could.

"Because everybody wants to feed the pretty birds, which are disgusting assholes."

"There's every chance I'll wuss out if you don't."

"Now? In the middle of the night?"

Ainsley let off a slightly exasperated shrug.

"I don't know, you seemed pretty worked up. Are you going to be able to sleep without saying you're sorry?

He sighed. "Yeah, let's go find him."