Chapter Text
Sam’s footsteps drag heavily on the steps leading up the fourth floor of Kara’s apartment building. Each step is weighted with a particular gait that brings her foot down ungracefully on each step, sounding like a weighty stomp to anyone who may overhear them through the thin walls of the building. To an outsider, one might assume Sam was just returning from a lovers quarrel, stomping her way through the hallway with dissatisfaction. Unfortunately for Kara, she alone knows the truth, and Sam’s steps are no trudging footsteps, but instead a weak, painful forcing of each movement. Every step is accentuated by a low, aching groan-an excruciating reminder of everything Kara had done to her the night before.
Kara’s jacket is wrapped tightly around Sam’s calf like a tourniquet. It’s the only thing stopping her from leaving a trail of blood in their wake as they slowly limp up to Kara’s door.
“Here, here,” Kara mutters, guiding Sam to lean up against the wall as she fumbles in her pocket for her door key. As Sam leans back, she suddenly howls out a gasp of pain, and it makes Kara flinch-it's too raw, too familiar to the sounds she had heard, had ignored last night for what they were. She shakes away the flashes of memory that threaten to consume her. Not now. Another time.
“Don’t put too much weight on that leg,” Kara whispers, crouching down to help Sam shift her weight without hurting it too much. She taps Sam’s ankle gently, quietly encouraging the woman to shift her stance. As she does, transferring her weight from her back leg to the other one, she slumps a little further against the wall, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” Sam whispers, voice no louder than a weak growl.
Kara just jams her key in the lock and kicks her door open. She reaches out an arm for Sam to latch onto, pulling herself up from her resting position, and together, they silently stagger their way into Kara’s studio.
Kara had been out hunting for rabbits when it happened.
Lena hadn't been able to produce enough synthetic blood for Kara for the month, and National City had a small nature reserve just outside the city limits that was well-reported for having a pretty big population of invasive rabbits. Kara was always careful when she had to do things this way- she didn’t want to damage any ecosystems or create any unnecessary harm. She had nothing against the rabbits, it was just about survival- and frankly, one or two rabbits at the end of the month was an infinitely better trade off than what would happen if Kara didn’t drink blood for a week. Feeding on a few rabbits precipitated a bit of guilt from Kara and a sizable donation to a local wildlife rescue. Losing control and accidentally feeding on a person meant Kara would just go ahead and put herself in self-imposed exile for the rest of her immortal days if she couldn’t control herself enough to not hurt anyone.
So anyways. Kara picks rabbits every time.
Kara had found one alone by a patch of thick brush, lounging in the dirt and seemingly asleep. It was fat, and would probably have enough blood to get her through the rest of the month until Lena could resupply her.
As she approaches, she hovers her feet slightly above the grass so as not to disturb the rabbit with any sound or movement. It’s one of the few perks of being a vampire-she’s every bit of the stealth hunter necessary to make any ambushes as quick and painless as possible.
Hands outstretched, Kara is a hair-trigger pull from her next meal. Shifting her weight forward, she prepares to lunge-
And that's when she hears it. A deep, rolling growl-more of a snarl really, that’s less of a warning and more of a call.
The rabbit’s eyes snap open, and in an instant before Kara can snatch it, it’s into the bushes and gone, gone, gone.
Kara could follow it’s trail. She has the rabbit’s blood scent, and she can still smell it now, even as it sprints hundreds of feet away and burrows deep into a knot beneath a tree to find a new hiding place for the night. But Kara is thirsty, and that means she’s really, really angry.
She whips around to face the wolf that’s snuck up on her. It’s got a deep brown coat of thick fur, and there's a slight discoloration of darker fur around its eyes like a mask, drawing Kara’s sight to it’s glowing auburn-gold eyes that glint menacingly in the dim moonlight. It’s low to the ground, joints all locked in a position to pounce. Whether it was readying to jump on the rabbit or Kara, she isn’t sure.
“I hope you didn’t want that,” she snarls, protruding fangs snagging on the downturn of her lip. “Cause it’s long gone, and I don’t think those big paws could fit where it went.”
The wolf growls louder, claws digging shallow imprints into the dirt. It’s cold out tonight, and Kara notices with each heavy breath from the thing’s ugly maw, it creates a small cloud of steam. For some reason, this only angers her more.
“Go find your own dinner.” Kara tries to pressure it, taking a menacing step forward. The wolf doesn’t move, and it certainly doesn’t seem intimidated by Kara’s attempted display of dominance, so she takes two more steps forward until she stands just a few feet from the wolf. She can feel the hotness of its breath now, can see the angry throb of a pulse just underneath the fur of its muzzle. She’s trapped in a staredown with this thing, and as she battles with it’s unflinching glare, for a short, uncountable second, she thinks there’s something familiar about the wolf’s eyes, but it’s gone in an instant, and Kara’s hunger is only growing, so she makes one final attempt of scaring the wolf off before she does something really dumb.
“Get out of here!” She shouts, stepping forward one more time, but that must be the wrong move because suddenly, the wolf lunges up on its hind legs and springs towards Kara, claws out and aimed right for her eyes.
Reacting just barely in time to defend herself, Kara blocks the swipe at her face with both her arms. The wolf’s strike still lands, tearing the sleeves of her coat and slashing deep into the skin of Kara’s forearms. She doesn’t bleed, not anymore, but it still hurts like a motherfuc- fricker . Right as it’s claws connect, Kara pushes it back with all her strength, and it flies backwards a few feet, tumbling over and sliding into the base of a thick tree. The wolf looks dazed as it struggles to its feet, huffing and puffing out in short hot breaths, and for a moment, Kara thinks it might slink off and leave her alone.
Until it snaps its head in her direction, fury burning in its eyes, and breaks into a dead sprint towards her with a dark, ravenous growl.
That’s fine. Two can play at this game, and Kara is more than confident she’ll be the one winning.
Kara’s lips curl back into a snarl, hissing loudly and baring her teeth. She runs at the wolf, hoping to use it’s momentum against it to knock it off its feet. Right as they’re about to collide, the wolf rears up, claws outstretched, and Kara ducks low underneath it’s swiping paws and throws both of her arms up, pushing the wolf’s snapping snout away from her face. For a brief, tense moment, they stay grappled just like that, the wolf trapped in Kara’s grip. But right when she feels a shift in the wolf’s stance, Kara throws it forward with all her weight, back against the same tree as before but harder this time, and Kara would be lying if she said the sound of the wolf’s back cracking from the impact didn;t fill her with a sick kind of satisfaction.
This time, when the wolf manages to stumble to its feet, it does slink off into the dark of night, finally leaving Kara alone.
Kara lets out a breath of relief. She brings her arms up to analyze the deep gashes the wolf made. They’re healing, but slowly, much slower than they would if Kara wasn’t running on empty right now. She sighs. Time to go hunt down that rabbit.
Kara turns around, trying to locate that old scent of blood, and-
Wait. Leaves crunching. Heavy footsteps. A familiar scent of wolf’s blood and-
The wolf lunges at Kara from the shadows in her half-surprised state, claws tearing into her back, creating more deep gashes that make her scream out in pain. Kara’s head is swimming, and whatever energy she could draw upon to try and heal herself is fully tapped. Gathering all the strength she can, she sends a wild kick backwards, aiming for the meaty leg she can feel pushed up behind ehr, and although her first kick misses, her second one lands home, and there’s a loud crunch of a bone definitely breaking. The wolf yelps, pulling back from Kara, so she spins around quickly and, taking the moment of weakness, she digs her fangs into the wolf’s neck and tears. She isn’t quite aiming for the jugular-she has enough sense in this moment to know not to kill the thing, but she needs to hurt it enough for it to stay down, or neither of them will be leaving this forest alive.
Thanking the stars, it works. The wolf howls loudly in a cry of pain-Kara almost feels sorry for it as she watches the thick torrents of blood flow from the wound. She isn’t tempted to drink it, since wolf blood is about the equivalent of a human drinking gutter water to vampires, so she just watches as the wolf falls over onto the ground, slowly staining the grass by it’s shoulder a dark red with its blood.
In that moment as the wolf falls, Kara feels a sudden stinging burn on the nape of her neck and back that differs from the stinging ache of the wolf’s claw marks. She turns around quickly to catch just the barest hint of sunrise.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Kara mutters, throwing up the hood of her jacket to protect herself as much as she can. She hadn’t realized she had been out so late, didn’t realize her and the wolf had fought for very long at all.
Crap. The wolf.
Kara crouches down to get a closer look at the wolf, which, just as she suspects, is starting to shift back to it’s human form now. She should really leave. She should really leave, and at the most she should maybe call the paramedics and leave an anonymous tip about a person she saw in the National City Wildlife Reserve who looked injured. She could say she was on a morning run when she saw the person, but couldn’t stay because she had to go to… work, and she should leave. She should leave this person and hope and pray that they don’t remember her at all and the paramedics come fast enough to them whatever emergency medical treatment they may need. If Kara is going to do anything, she needs to leave, now.
Kara stays.
The wolf is mostly human now, and extremely, unsurprisingly naked, so Kara takes off her overcoat and drapes it over the person for a little bit of cover. They’re facing away from her, so she can only see long, straight brown hair that covers much of the person's shoulders and arms. She nudges them gently.
“Hey,” she whispers, poking the person in the shoulder. “Are you awake? Can you hear me?”
She receives no response.
“Oh, shoot,” Kara mutters, starting to get more and more nervous. “Are you, um, are you alive? Groan once if you’re alive.”
Miraculously, this manages to elicit a response from the person. Kara hears a low, pained groan, and she lets out a tense breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
“I’m gonna turn you over, okay?” Kara says, not really waiting for a response. She uses both hands and her knee to gently, slowly guide the injured person onto their back, and-
Oh no.
Kara lays the injured person onto their back, and immediately recognizes the face staring back at her with tired, lidded eyes. The haze of her hunger clears, and she barely even registers the pain in her back and arms anymore, as she immediately zeroes in on the person before her because its-
“Sam?” Kara chokes out, hands flying to Sam’s face, to her neck- to the deep, gaping gash that’s still slowly oozing blood, the gash Kara knows she caused-
“No, no, no.” Kara immediately presses both hands to Sam’s neck, attempting, feebly, to stop or slow the bleeding however she can
“I didn’t know,” she sobs. “I didn’t know, you never told me, how was I supposed to know- oh, shit, Sam, I’m so sorry-”
Kara barely notices the trembling hand that wraps around her wrist, until it applies the barest hint of pressure, forcing Kara to look at Sam’s face instead of the spot in between her neck and shoulder where her hands are currently pressed.
“Kara,” Sam whispers, and her voice is so weak and pained it makes Kara shake. “Kara? Wh-what happened?.”
Kara can’t even begin to answer that question right now. “I was out here, and you… I tried to scare it-you off, but you weren’t listening, and I hurt you, Sam, and I didn’t know- if I had known, I would have been more careful I would have…”
She trails off. Through all her rambles, Sam’s eyes have drifted from Kara’s face, down to her arm, where the deep gash from the wolf’s- from Sam’s claws had struck her.
“Did I do that to you?” Sam asks, hand reaching out tentatively to hover above the ugly marks.
Kara freezes.
“Kara… did I do this to you?” Sam asks, anger vibrating through her voice. No, not anger. Outrage.
“It wasn’t you,” Kara shakes her head. “It- it was the wolf, and I hurt you too, and that was me -”
“Don’t.” Sam growls, and Kara catches just the barest hint of sharp fang in her grimace. The last part of the wolf to go, maybe.
Kara is suddenly painfully reminded of the sun behind her as brighter beams cut through the leaves and sting the parts of her back that are still exposed. She hisses out in pain, and Sam pushes herself up, slowly.
“We need to get out of here,” she says. “The sun is only going to do you more damage, and I’m not healing out here in the dirt.”
“Sam, you aren’t okay to walk-”
“I’ll be fine.” Sam cuts her off. She sighs. “You just need to help me up.”
Kara nods. Forcing herself to her feet, she reaches under Sam’s arms and helps pull her up, trying to ignore the loud scream of pain as she stands up on the leg Kara is certain she broke.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers again. Sam doesn’t respond.
“I left a bag of clothes by the edge of the trail up here,” Sam just says, pointing in the direction they came from. “We should go back to your place, it’s closer.”
“Okay,” Kara agrees, pain beginning to fully set in again as she and Sam make their way back to the trail. “Okay.”