Author's note: So, this is rather short - however, I rather liked it, and I haven't put up anything recently. (I've written other small things, which I might put into a set of drabbles, and I'm trying to brainstorm stuff for a full-blown story.) If you have any requests, please let me know~
Collapsing under the weight of past failures and guilt, his shoulders buckled and arms locked, gritting his teeth to remain standing. He had to remain standing, had to keep himself upright and he most certainly could not fail.
Eyes caught sight of those he thought he could help, assist - taking more weight upon his shoulders with each bite, he believed they would eventually help him life the weight and let him regain himself, regain some sort of future, help him throw his sins into some abysmal place where they could not haunt him again. But the weight continued piling up; they dropped their own heavy lifting on his and stalked away, unable to find contentedness with him. And he continued to grind his teeth down, refusing to submit to emotions that churned and lurched within him.
And just as his knees hit the ground, the weight about to fall and crush him and shatter ribs that would pierce heart and lungs and undeniably mean the end of the great Hale family, it was shifted from his shoulders to another's. And he paused, believing it to be a peaceful moment before death overtook him.
It took a sarcastic voice with gentle eyes to pull him from the growing shadows he had allowed himself to fall into. "Gonna make me do all the work myself, sourwolf?" And he refused to allow another to carry all he had been supporting for so long; standing up again, he took hold of the weight that seemed so much lighter with the human beside him - funny, how a human could help the werewolf lift himself and his falling world, remove the lead from his veins and balloon him back up into the real world.
They stood together, barely noticing the fading weight until their arms fell to their sides with nothing more to hold up above them, no death ax waiting to slice their heads free from their bodies. With a single glance at each other, they intertwined their fingers and held onto something much more pleasing.