It's seven pm and Steven is waiting.

He's been a mixture of excitement and anxiety all day and it's quite tiring to survive as a ball of mixed emotions all day.

There's no real need for the anxiety, but then again he hasn't seen his best friend in six months. He hopes nothing's changed between them.

He's throwing stones towards the woods in his boredom, not really paying attention much unless it comes from the direction of the tree line.

Canada is freezing and while it would probably be smart to go back inside to the warm fire his mother lit, the last thing he wants to do is miss Chaos.

Now that Steven's an actual adult, living on his own in the real world, he's had to limited his visits to every six months. His parents are happy that he visits them still and Chaos doesn't seem care though, the big doof's always happy to see him.

It doesn't matter how long he's been away.

His parent's porch wraps around the whole outside of the house, and he's thankful that from his spot on the love seat that he can see the tree line. It's barely a spot in the distance when he notices it, but Steven automatically recognises the erratic and jump stride that belongs to his best friend.

He's sprinting across the snow within seconds, glad that soon he'll be able to hold his best friend in his arms after so long. He's halfway across the open field when he trips and lands face first in the snow. It leaves an opening for Chaos to come leaping over and pounce, landing on top of him.

"Ugh, get off me you bastard. You're squishing me," laughs Steven, pushing at the giant lump laying on top of him. Chaos whines before rolling off, his brown and red blended tail wagging in excitement.

It's so much easier to see and breathe too, now that the giant wolf is no longer on top of him and crushing his chest. The short boys laughter slowly trails off into giggles and Steven allows himself to inspect the animal in front of him.

"You've gotten bigger, dammit. That's not fair Chaos, soon you'll be taller than me and you're not even human," he says, pouting slightly.

It's easy to remember the day he met the big ball of fur and it's slightly embarrassing. Since he was seventeen and lost on a frozen lake.

He was younger and stupider, deciding to wander the cold Candian air by himself. He had found himself on the lake, just wandering the ice pretending to skate without actual skates when he had fell through the thin ice.

It was so cold that he could feel it burn his skin and the shock of the whole situation had left him so frozen (pun not intended) that he didn't even attempt to swim up. Instead Steven just thrashed around in the water.

If it wasn't for Chaos, who had appeared and shoved his face into the water to bite at Steven's hoody to pull him out, he'd probably be dead right now.

Steven sighed, his hands finding themselves absentmindedly stroking Chaos's fur, fingers twirling it into tiny curls. His best friend was a wolf he thought to himself. While others may think it's weird, Steven couldn't find it in himself to care.

Chaos slowly stood up, managing to tower over Steven from where he sits in the snow. The boy watches the wolf's face, trying to pick out the emotions that flicker through the animal's brown eyes. It might seem crazy, but Steven swears he sees fear in his friends irises but it's quickly replaced with a blank stare.

They stare at each other for a few moments and Steven's face crinkles up in confusion. Is Chaos going to run and leave him sitting in the snow?

They usually play around together for while, so his panic flares up at the thought that the wolf would leave so soon. After all, the main reason Steven is in Canada is because of Chaos.

"Chaos?" Steven asks, not realising that he's talking to an animal like it can understand him. Like it could answer him, "What's wrong buddy, hey. What's got you acting so weird Chilled Chaos,"

It takes a moment before Chaos responds and Steven wonders if using the wolf's full name made any difference. The brown and red furred wolf leans forward on his front paws and ducks his head. At first to Steven it looks likes Chilled is stretching, but the idea is quickly tossed away when he realises that his wolf is shaking violently and whining lowly.

"Fuck, fuck, shit," Steven mumbles, his worry increases at the thought of Chaos in pain. He doesn't know what to do, since his major is computer science not animal science. So all Steven can really do is shuffle closer and watch his best friend shudder in pain.

He realises it's worse than he thought when Chilled's fur starts disappearing, leaving pink skin in it's place. The beautiful brown and red fur isn't falling out though, he can't spot any of it hiding in the snow, instead it looks like it's just receding into Chilled's body. But of course that's not possible, that shouldn't be possible.

Steven abruptly gasps when his brain catches up, his green eyes scanning the now human form stretched out in front of him.

The very naked human form.

If he hadn't of seen it, hadn't have just watched it happen in front of his eyes, Steven would never have believed that his wolf just shifted into a human. A human who is staring at him with a look of pure adoration on his face.

Chaos swallows thickly and when he speaks his voice sounds gravely, "Wow... you're even better in colour... Uh, please don't freak out I can explain," he begs with that look of fear quietly easily recognizable in his eyes again.

Steven just stares and it feels like someone's dumped ice water over him again. This isn't real, his mind supplies, you must be going mad, because the only explanation for what just happen is like something out of fiction.

"Are... are you okay Ze?" Chaos asks, his head tilting slightly to the side. Steven finds his eyes glued to his hair. It's short, fluffy and it looks just as soft as what his fur used to be. It has a strip of red running though it that matches the blended colour of what his fur used to be.

It's all a bit overwhelming but Steven manages to stutter out a reply, "W-what the hell? I'm seeing things aren't I? Please tell me this is a dream cause things like this don't just happen!"

Chaos flinches at the sharpness of his tone, but continues speaking anyway, "You're not dreaming, I would have told you earlier but I-... I was scared. I didn't know how you'd react. Fuck, it's so cold out here, how do you survive like this," he complains, tucking his legs underneath his butt and rubbing at his arms.

Steven would offer him his jacket, but his heads spinning and before he passes out he wants to do one thing. His shaking arm extends towards Chilled and his fingers make contact with his best friends cold skin. His best friends cold but very real skin.

"You can have my jacket..." Steven manages to mumble before passing out into Chaos's arms.