Story: RCM Insecure Werewolf

 

Hyosuke spent the rest of the morning wrapped in a blanket burrito of shame, sipping tea he didn’t remember making and trying very hard not to make eye contact with his roommates.

Saori glanced at him from the kitchen, eyes narrowing. “You smell weird.”

“Excuse me?” Hyosuke croaked, voice still raw from howling at the moon and, more humiliatingly, yelling at himself in the mirror ten minutes ago.

“You smell like... I don’t know. Like wolf and guilt.” She paused. “And maybe lavender?”

“That’s not lavender,” Shusui said from the couch. “That’s whatever perfume Taniko wears. He came back marinated in it.”

“Ohhh,” Saori said, drawing the vowel out in a way that made Hyosuke want to die. “So that’s what happened.”

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!” Hyosuke blurted, standing up too fast and nearly losing his grip on the blanket.

“You’re blushing like someone who got lucky,” Saori said. “Or cursed. Possibly both. Did you sell your soul to get laid?”

“I didn’t get laid!” he protested. “Probably. I don’t know! I woke up in a bush!”

“...That’s not a denial,” Shusui muttered.

Saoiri promptly whapped Shusui on the back of the head. "Dummy! Woke up in a bush? Perfect opportunity for a sex joke, and you blew it."

Hyosuke groaned and flopped onto the floor, blanket and all. “I’m turning into a monster, I think I fought another monster, I maybe made out with a girl I’ve been in love with for three years, and I’m ninety percent sure she saw my junk. This is a cry for help.”

“You do look like someone who’s been thoroughly emotionally ravaged,” Saori said, sipping her coffee. “Want toast?”

=====

Somewhere else in the city, Taniko was definitely not thinking about Hyosuke’s junk. She was doing very important things, like browsing oversized sunglasses at a convenience store and checking her reflection in the freezer door glass every few seconds.

Okay. So. Superhuman strength? Check. Insane sense of smell? Definitely. Claws retractable? Apparently so, but only when she wasn’t mad. Mood swings? Kind of. Unexpected attraction to hairy men? ...Let’s revisit that later.

“I like this body,” she murmured, turning side to side and flexing slightly under her borrowed hoodie. “I feel like I could punch a train.”

“Please don’t punch a train,” said the old man behind the counter without looking up.

She left the store with a pack of gum and a mission. She didn’t remember everything from the night before, but she remembered enough: a fight, a connection, and a really nice set of abs. She’d find him again. She had a name now — Hyosuke. And a scent. And instincts that, no matter how much her brain protested, insisted he was hers.

=====

Back at the apartment, Hyosuke had just gotten out of the shower when it happened.

Knock knock knock.

He froze. The scent hit him before he touched the door handle. His towel trembled in his hands.

“Open the door, Hyosuke,” came a cheerful female voice from the other side.

He turned to Shusui, eyes wide with horror. “She found me.”

“You ran away from a naked woman in the park, bro. You think she wasn’t going to track you down?”

“She called me ‘mate’ in a dream! I think. Or maybe it was a hallucination. Or a hallucinated dream—”

“Dude,” Shusui said, getting up and walking toward the door, “if you don’t open it, I will, and I’m inviting her in for tea and trauma.”

Before Hyosuke could object, the door opened. Taniko stood on the threshold in a windbreaker two sizes too big and a grin far too confident for someone who had spent the previous night dropkicking a werewolf into a dumpster.

“Hi,” she said brightly. “So. About last night.”

Hyosuke squeaked. He was not ready for this! Not even a little bit! He gave her a timid little wave, and let loose the most quiet "Hi" in recorded history while she skipped inside like she owned the place.

"Damn, Hyosuke!" Shusui whistled. "No wonder you were infatuated. Mind if I make a play at - "

All of a sudden, Hyosuke found himself snarling at Shusui, canines elongated, the hair on the back of his neck on end. His fingernails felt like they'd grown a whole inch and a half, and he was pretty sure his eyes were trying to bug clean out of his sockets - 

But then the feeling vanished when Shusui held up his hands in apology. A submissive gesture. "Hey, chill, it was just a joke."

The feeling faded, and all of a sudden he was craving that blanket again. Oh, to wrap it around himself like a burrito. He'd feel so much safer, so much more secure...

Ack! Saori was leading Taniko into the living room! This was bad, this was very bad!

"Would you like a seat?" Saori offered.

"No thanks, I'll stand!" Taniko said. Well, fine by him. Shusui and Saori sat on the couch, while Hyusoke got on the chair - and promptly found Taniko sitting in his lap. "Sorry about this," she chirped. "Um, it's kinda hard to explain exactly, but my body seems to have chosen you as its mate. I was rather hoping we could get to know each other a little better first, but -"

They made eye contact. Their gazes stuck on each other, lingering as thought stuck. He felt his breathing becoming heavier, and in turn, so was hers. She didn't need to finish her sentence, he already knew in his soul what she was thinking.

'Was' thinking, because she wasn't right now. 

"Ahem!" Saori coughed. "Alright while it would be super, super hot to watch two young new werewolves get it on right in our living room, it might be for the best to get a little old fashioned exposition out of the way, yes?"

The spell between them broke. They were thinking with their human brains again. Still, Taniko remained in his lap. Made no effort at all to get out of it, actually. If anything she was squirming in place to make herself more comfortable... or maybe to provoke a reaction from him? If that was it, mission accomplished, oof! On the one hand, this was crushing his image of this girl! On the other... it did feel really, really absurdly good!

"Alright then!" Taniko chirped. "Listen very carefully, I'll fill you in on the details, okay?"