Hours later and we walked out of the auditorium, giggling as we left the halls and made our way into the moon and street lamp lit campus. Talking back and forth about the show, what I thought about it, everything like that as she asked what I thought. My opinion mostly that it was rather funny and tragic, even if I wasn’t exactly able to say some of the full humor of her bringing me to a musical about cannibalism.
Walking slowly to enjoy ourselves, I led her to the corner before her house where we stopped, and she finally told me, “I…guess this is where we part.”
“Yeah, I guess it is,” I muttered awkwardly, rubbing the back of my head unsure of what else to say.
Neither of us moved, staring into each other's eyes in the night until finally Barbie said, “this day’s weirder than I thought it’d be.”
“Your girlfriend turning out to be a werewolf not in the planner?” I asked, laughing slightly as I took a brief glance around us, a twinge of fear someone was spying. A scent on the wind told me someone was, silver and cheap fast food and natural scents that could have made me care less I was being spied on.
“Well, it wasn't exactly expected,” she admitted, sighing with closed eyes, “I…I’ll see you Monday, I guess, if you’re still wanting to do the modeling.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I said, honestly a little happy that things hadn’t changed so much, “hopefully the eye will be better by then. Not healed, but…well, easier to paint.”
“I’ll work around it as best I can,” Barbie admitted, tenderly reaching out and resting her hand on the bandages, a tender sensation working through the touch. We stood like that for a long time, and in a soft voice she told me, “I’ll…I’ll also think about what you said. I heard about what happened with Sigyn’s girlfriend, Lucy, and…well, might be a bit better than waiting.”
“It was…I know it’s stupid, but I still meant it,” I admitted, knowing full well it was a horrible idea, “I mean, know a psychologist would probably have some things to say, but-”
“A psychologist would probably tell me not to date the girl claiming to be a werewolf,” Barbie said back, kissing me a final time, a gesture I returned as my arms wrapped around her waist. When she pulled away, her forehead rested on my shoulder and she asked, “can I have a few days? Big decision and-”
“Take as long as you need, I need to talk to more than one person,” I admitted, and we parted as I watched her slowly walk back to her home.
Standing there I made sure to keep an eye on her until she was inside, and I distantly heard her yelling greetings. I shook my head, smiled, and didn’t even flinch as a revolver was pushed into my back and Percy said, “I don’t want to fight.”
“I figured you would have shot me if you did,” I admitted, turning to face him even as I heard the hammer cock back. We met eyes, and I noticed something in his glare I couldn’t help but describe as sadness as I asked, “how long have you been stalking me?”
“I wasn’t,” he admitted, uncocking the revolver and putting it in a holster hidden under his jacket, obviously unable to move his left arm much as he did so, “I was supposed to meet up with a few friends here, hid in the back with an emf reader’s earbud in my ear in case there was any sign of a ghost. I…I saw you, and I wanted to talk to you. Is there somewhere we can go?”
“You’re driving,” I said, gesturing him onwards as we walked a short distance to his truck.
A long and near silent drive later, made all the more awkward by the sense he obviously was scared of me, we finally reached the Covenant. I had him park around the side, a short walk from my room, and obviously even more uncomfortable about where he was I led him down the steps to the basement.
“Welcome to my home,” I muttered, noting Lord wasn’t there while I offered the man a cigarette. He turned it down, and I went about lighting my own as I asked, “so what’s the angle? If you’re wanting to kill me you’re going to have a hell of a run escaping here.”
Percy took a long moment to answer, staring me down with an obvious pity I fucking hated until he finally asked me, “are you really Hawk? I heard Martin screaming about the…he called it a lie, but I need to know.”
I hadn’t expected that, as much as I probably should have, and I nodded slowly as I told him, “my name’s Mary now.”
“Right, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary,” the man repeated several quick times, watching me with almost panicked eyes, “I…how do I know?”
“You trust me?”
“Look, I…I want to believe you are who you say you are,” Percy said, sighing as he rubbed his face in frustration, “can you say anything to help? Something only you’d know.”
“How will you know it’s not something I forced me to tell myself?” I asked, knowing that it was a losing game.
Percy thought for a moment, and looking down said, “okay, anything just…stupid, something about me you’d never think to tell someone else in a thousand years out of respect or it not being important.”
I sighed, thinking about our memories together, every silly moment and, finally thinking of something, answered, “you blame Lola Bunny for being why you have a thing for blondes, specifically the one from Looney Tunes Show not Space Jam.”
The man nodded, eyes closing as he let the words set in before he told me, “you know you didn’t need to jump straight to that one?”
“It was either that or the time we were at that pool party and you kissed your-”
“You’re him,” he said, before quickly correcting himself which surprised me, “her…you. You’re you. I’m sorry, it’s-”
“I’ve been dead for, what, almost seven years now?” I asked, shaking my head in disbelief, “I think I can forgive you-”
I fell back to the stone ground, gripping my nose as it broke under the punch and I had to force myself to sit up. A hiss escaped my lips, the wolf growling, and I looked up to see Percy alternating between shaking out his right hand and trying to sooth his left arm. It would have been funny if it wasn’t after fucking punching me.
“What the fuck was that for?!” I snapped, helping pop my healing nose back into place as I stumbled to unsteady feet.
“That was for letting me think you were fucking dead! I cried for you, I went to your funeral, I had to watch your dad spiral, I had to live with that guilt for not fucking being there for you!” he yelled, tears staining his eyes as he paced the floor, before lunging at me once more. The wolf braced itself, almost ready to let out a growl, and not a moment later Percy pulled me into a one armed hug. Every muscle in my body frozen in place, until with a sigh he told me, “and that’s… because you came back.”
The wolf remained frozen, and I pushed myself into him as I returned the hug, letting my chin rest on his unharmed shoulder, “things changed a lot, didn’t they?”
Percy laughed, shaking his head as he pushed back, his hands on his shoulders as he admitted, “well, I think you’ve changed a little more than me,” glancing a good bit lower than my eyes before he forced himself back.
I let out a small giggle, I fucking had to at that, and picked my cigarette off the ground as I told him, “believe it or not, didn’t know I was a woman until after I first turned into a werewolf, so you can imagine it was a weird week all around.”
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“Fucking Hell, that’s…yeah, this all doesn’t feel real,” Percy muttered, letting out an awkward laugh as he moved to sit at my table, “I mean, okay, yeah, it feels real, but not real at the same time.”
I nodded, walking over to sit across from him as I leaned back in my seat and asked, “what convinced you anyway? Like, before you asked me.”
“Well, I thought about all our interactions after I heard your dad yelling about it,” he started, stopping with a furrowed brow, “and I figured that between the options of a random werewolf finding me weirdly attractive, and you having a good deal of unresolved, slightly weird for the context, emotions about me, one was like a sliver more likely. I mean, I know I look pretty good, but it’s my personality that’s the winner.”
Oh right he thought that was a bit weirder than it was.
What was I saying, it was fucking weird.
“You know, we don’t need to talk about that.”
“Let’s not,” he agreed quickly.
We sat across from each other for a long moment, shifting in place. I was about to ask him something when I heard the door to my room open. I froze, a bit panicked as I wondered how to explain this, and turned to see Knives coming down the stairs holding a plate of food.
“Hey, heard you were coming home tonight, made some dinner since I heard-” they stopped, looking on in surprise at the man in my room as they asked, “sorry, am I interrupting something?... you’re the guy from the house, I heard-”
“It’s complicated,” I said quickly, frowning as I shot to my feet like she’d seen something bad, “Knives, this is Percy, you two met. We…we were talking, now that we knew who each other actually were.”
“Right,” they muttered, nodding a few times as they looked me over, “I’ll just…I made some hot wings, baked macaroni, twice baked potatoes. Terrible combination, way too heavy, I was working last minute trying to be fancy. Sorry about the eye. I already heated everything up.”
“Thank you, Knives,” I said, walking over as I took the plate from them and they handed me a can of soda from their coveralls pocket.
The werewolf nodded, looking over me for a long time before glancing back to man behind me and declaring, “use fucking protection, or like…you know what, just fucking don’t. Alright? Guessing he’s the one who shot out your eye, based on the bandages peeking out of his shirt, and that’s a recipe for disaster.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I said quickly, about to explain myself before Knives raised a finger to silence me and quickly left the room.
Left alone, I let out a sigh and went back to the table while Percy laughed and asked me, “Your mom?”
“No, that’s Knives, they’re a friend,” I said, stressing the pronoun for him and frowning as I quickly asked, “do they come across like my mom?”
“Well, apparently your dad fucked a werewolf, I know werewolves age slower, and…they? And they came downstairs, gave you dinner, and complained about your sex life,” the man explained, nodding a few times, “so yeah I kinda just made an assumption there.”
“I don’t know who my mom is, no one will fucking tell me,” I muttered with a shake of my head, “apparently she fucking lives in France and has one eye, sound like anyone you’ve ever seen with my dad?”
“Not really, but he hasn’t exactly hung out with many women since he got married,” Percy said.
I looked up at him in shock, and he looked up at me confused even as I asked, “when the fuck did he get married?! To who?!”
“Oh, right, you didn’t know the one,” Percy muttered, shifting in his seat with an awkward cough, “um, well, Leila, they-”
“Leila?” I asked, wondering if the man was fucking with me at this point, “she’s like ten years younger than him! We grew up knowing her!”
“Yeah, she’s like ten years older than us too you know, your dad’s kinda young,” Percy said with a small laugh, “they had their five year anniversary a few weeks ago, they-”
“I’ve been dead six and a half, were they dating before I died?” I interrupted, still wondering how much of this was fucking with me.
“No, they only dated like…what, six months?” Percy asked, as I began doing the math in my head, “I mean, it was really sudden, I mean, I remember her asking me if I thought it was a good idea.”
I finished doing the math, furrowing my brow as I realized, “they started dating on the first anniversary of my death?”
“I mean, I think it was a little before or after,” Percy shrugged, before slowly adding on, “that doesn’t sound better does it?”
“I…good for him I guess,” I said, nodding slowly as I tried to process the fact I had a stepmom now I guess, and it was one of the last women I would have expected, “anything else I should know?”
Percy looked like he didn’t want to answer, and finally closed his eyes and looked down as he admitted, “she found out she was pregnant Sunday.”
Well, alright, fuck me I guess everyone was having kids weren’t they?
No, that wasn’t fucking fair.
It wasn’t fair to expect him to fucking suffer the whole time, maybe I…fucking Hell, could I have ever said I wanted him to suffer longer? A year was a short time to wait, but I couldn’t exactly say I’d mourned anything long in my life. I’d done nothing except jump from bed to fucking bed and pretended everything was alright.
“That’s good for them,” I muttered, nodding slowly in disbelief as I asked, “do they…um, anything yet?”
“I think it was like, eight weeks so nine now? I don’t know how it works,” Percy said, shrugging slowly, “they’ve been talking about trying for almost a year now, so it wasn't really a surprise…for, like, me I guess.”
“This family tree is going to be a fucking mess,” I muttered, pulling my wallet out of my purse and flipping it open. For a moment I froze, not sure if I should have shown him, and finally decided to pass the picture of Martin and Gevaudan over. Clearing my throat, I explained, “my son.”
Percy looked at it in surprise, eyes wide a moment before he said, “damn Haw-, um, Mary, you got a girl pregnant? Seems a little reckless for you…she’s definitely hot though, she's single?”
I choked on my soda, laughing as the liquid shot out my nose and I told him, “no, a guy got me pregnant. She’s not interested in dating people.”
“Oh,” Percy said, wide eyed a moment as he started, “but you’re…” and then corrected himself, “right, magic. That would…wait you had a fucking kid?”
“Living with his aunt up in Canada,” I answered that part for him, leaning my cheek on one hand as I ate. “Named him Martin Hunter Jameson, he’s three. Hunter’s his dad’s name, but I haven’t talked to him in months, we…we had a falling out.”
“Well, I think your dad’s going to be in for a shock,” Percy laughed, shaking his head as he added on, “you find out you’re a stepdaughter and sister, he gets to find out he’s a grandfather.” before seeming to think about it and add on, “Can I be the cool uncle? I kinda want to be a cool uncle.”
“Yeah, you know what, sure,” I agreed, laughing with him as I shook my head, “when I get to see him next I’ll make sure you get a chance to do something irresponsible together.”
“Hey, now we’re talking,” Percy said, shaking his head with a small chuckle, his smile growing sad. A long moment passed, and finally he asked me, “why do you have those markings on you? I know what they are, I know…why did you join a group like that?”
The words felt like a slap to the face, even as I knew it was the exact sort of question to come next. He’d already shown he’d known, he’d already made that clear, why shouldn’t that have been next? The Purists killed half-ones, ate them, they were the fucking creatures in the night, why not wonder why your childhood best friend was in them?
A part of me also couldn’t deal with that, and I shook my head as I lied, “I was with them for a little under a year. They found me when I first transformed, and I didn’t have much choice in joining, but I escaped. I hated it there.”
Percy nodded, his smile returned, and he shook his head as he told me, “that’s who I remember.”
I was ready to say more, when Percy’s phone rang and he quickly answered it, seeming almost shocked as he said a few generic greetings. He grunted an affirmation, nodded along, gave a few generic answers, and I ate in silence and watched him. Eventually he said he could do something, said he’d be around soon, and hung up with a low sigh.
“Your dad, asking if I was staying over tonight. Leila needs me to pick up something for the nausea,” Percy muttered, slowly pushing to his feet as he asked, “is there…well, I gotta leave soon, but anything you want to ask me I guess? I feel like I’ve been grilling you this whole time.”
Letting out a low groan I rose to my feet, shaking my head for a moment before asking, “what have you been up to? Haven’t talked to you since High School, have you done anything fun?”
“Have I done anything fun?” he asked, chuckling for a moment, “well, let’s see, High School was depressing and boring, except for a pretty nice homecoming game spent under the bleachers. Took a year off, visited my family down south, fell in with a girl, she turned out to be a witch, wanted to use me in a weird ritual, I let her no hesitation, got kinda weird, we broke up, did the same thing with her sister like a month later, I only just started being able to taste fruit again a few weeks ago. I came back up here for college and it’s been pretty quiet though.”
“Studying anything in particular?”
Percy chuckled, seeming a little embarrassed as he admitted, “well, I, um…I went in originally thinking I’d study Marine Biology, always made me feel a bit closer to you. Really though science is boring as fuck, and I realized I had a passion for literature, so I’m studying that.”
“You know, I’m gonna pretend you didn’t just insult the best subject in school, and just say good for you,” I said, stepping forward and hugging him a final time, “I’ll let you go, but we need to get together and hang out sometime. Right now though I majorly fucked up, and need to get some advice from someone.”
“If that’s the case stop talking and get going,” Percy said, breaking the hug and slapping my ass to urge me onwards. I let out a noise of surprise, and we stared each other down for a long moment with my face burning before he said, “that felt really weird to do.”
“Yeah that didn’t feel the same as it used to.”
“The vibes changed a little,” Percy muttered awkwardly, shifting in place for a moment before asking, “can I have your number — no, I’m not saying it like that, already feel weird, never mind. I have your email, I’ll send you my number. Goodbye.”
“See you soon,” I agreed, and the man left as I fell back into my seat and let my head fall into my hands.
Too much to do, too much to fucking deal with, and not enough time to ever make it feel good.
