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Luke Patterson wasn’t sour about being bitten by a werewolf as a kid.
No, really, he wasn’t. With changes since he was five years old, he knew now how difficult it was to control himself during the change, and it had taken him years to gain any sort of awareness when he changed so that he would remember what happened the next morning. There was that time he changed right after band practice and ended up sitting outside Bobby’s house howling at the sky in the rhythm of the melody they’d been working on (Bobby had thrown tennis balls off into the night until Luke ran after one of them). There had been more than a few times that he’d forgotten how to get home in the midst of the change and woken up at one of his friend’s houses, though twice it had been in the Molina garage and he’d had to hustle so that Julie Molina wouldn’t see him entirely naked first thing in the morning - he refused to think about why he had gone there in the first place.
The point was, he didn’t hold it against the wolf who bit him and passed on the lycanthropy. Most people at Los Feliz had some kind of supernatural element, and those that didn’t knew someone who did. It was just the way their community worked.
On days like this, though, when he couldn’t find his homework in his backpack even though he KNEW he’d done it, he started to feel a little bit of resentment towards his shapeshifting. If what he thought had happened had happened, he was going to be sent to Principal Lessa and probably given detention, which meant less sleep for the week while he was changing, which almost certainly would lead to him having less control in his canine state and doing something stupid. He could only hope that this time his stupid wolf self would decide not to traipse over to the Molina house. Julie was just beginning to recover from losing her mom - she didn’t need to add his weird canine crush into the mix.
“Mr. Patterson?” his calculus teacher prompted, still waiting in front of his desk. “Your homework - have you misplaced it?”
Luke sighed, not believing the words he was about to say.
“I think I ate my own homework.”
Just as he’d predicted, he ended up in front of Principal Lessa trying to explain why this was the third time in as many days he was using the same excuse. Lessa was patient with the shapeshifting students, but Luke knew her patience would run out eventually, and he had a sinking feeling that day was today.
“Luke,” she said after a long deliberation. “You know we try our best to accommodate the shapeshifting students. And we know your affliction is somewhat unpredictable at the best of times.”
“It’s not an affliction,” he felt the need to point out. “And it’s getting better - I haven’t had to attend lessons as a wolf in months.”
Not that he wouldn’t take wolfing out if it meant escaping this conversation.
“Be that as it may,” Lessa continued, steepling her fingers to look over them at Luke, “the faculty can not accept what isn’t provided to them. Eating your own homework is not an acceptable reason to not turn it in.”
Luke slumped back in his chair. He knew what was coming. Bad grades meant no more freedom when he wolfed out - he would be lucky if his parents let him outside in the next year when he changed.
“I don’t think detention is going to help, though.”
Luke’s head shot up, hope rising in his chest. “You don’t?”
Lessa shook her head, reaching for a piece of paper. “In circumstances like this, it’s the animal side controlling your actions, not the human side. It simply doesn’t make any sense to punish human you for the actions of wolf you. What we need is for you to have an accountability source - you need someone who can keep your actions as your lupine self more under control than they presently are.”
“I can ask Reggie to come stay at my house until the change ends?” Luke asked hopefully.
Lessa laughed. “This is not a reward for eating your homework, Mr. Patterson. We will assign one of the volunteers to you and you will spend the night at their house - the system is designed this way for a reason. Your volunteer will find you at lunch.”
“So some stranger is going to have you over to their house to keep you from eating your own calculus homework?” Bobby asked, throwing a tennis ball between his hands. “Seems like a recipe for disaster if you ask me.”
“No one did ask you,” Alex pointed out. “Dude, stop teasing him and put the ball away - doing this to him is cruel.”
Bobby reluctantly returned the ball in his hands to his backpack, and Luke’s attention snapped back to his friends. Reggie smiled sympathetically and handed him a bag of gummy sweets.
“Who have they chosen?” Reggie asked once Luke was wolfing down his treat. “I know I’m on the volunteer list, but I doubt they’ll assign you someone they know is your friend.”
Luke swallowed a mouthful of half chewed gummies before answering. “No, I tried to request you and they said no. I’m going to be assigned a random volunteer from the list.”
“As long as it’s someone who will make sure you get enough sleep,” Willie said from where his head was resting in Alex’s lap. “I’m worried about you, man.”
“I’m sleeping,” Luke protested, though the protest was hollow - they all knew his sleep schedule during the full moon was a little funky. “Just… running around in the woods, too.”
“The woods of Los Angeles?” Bobby asked drily, raising an eyebrow. “Didn’t you wake up naked on the beach two days ago?”
“That wasn’t intentional!”
A small cough brought their arguing to a stop, though Luke took the opportunity to throw a gummy at Bobby before turning.
Julie Molina was standing behind their group, her cap for once pulled up so that she could take them all in. Her hands were still wrapped up in the sleeves of her flannel and her shoulders were hunched in - everything about her posture said she wanted to fade into the background and wasn’t being allowed to.
“Luke?” she asked softly. Luke didn’t respond immediately, which meant naturally that all four his friends decided to poke him in different places. He tried his best to hold back a yip at Reggie’s fingers poking at a very sensitive area on his side.
“Yeah?” he said, trying to aim a kick at Reggie’s arm now draped over his calves.
“I’m, um, your volunteer?” Julie said, though it sounded like a question. “I’m meant to keep you from doing things to hurt your school performance when you’re shifted?”
Luke was going to die. He was going to die right there on the lawn of the school and his cause of death was going to be listed as “pretty girl gives unexpected news and lycanthrope choked on sweet treat”.
“You, um, can do that?” he asked weakly before tossing a handful of gummies into his mouth to avoid embarrassing himself further.
“Yeah, my parents…”
There was a painful pause as Julie’s words cut off. After a moment, she forced herself to speak again.
“My dad has an area set up for you at home, so you’re going to come to my house after school.”
Luke nodded, his jaws glued together by the sugar and by his desire not to make himself look incredibly stupid in front of his crush.
She knows I ate my homework, he thought faintly. Julie Molina knows I was an idiot who ate my Calculus homework.
This was going to be a long night.
Contrary to Luke’s concerns that he would end up embarrassing himself in front of Julie’s family, it seemed to be going well. Ray was almost too excited to have Luke there, greeting him with enthusiasm and encouraging him to join in the family preparations. While Julie went to go check on the area prepared for Luke’s change, Luke was challenged to a round of xBox by Julie’s younger brother. After a few matches that Luke claimed he didn’t throw just to make Carlos happy, Julie and her brother were summoned to the kitchen to help prepare the meal. With nothing better to do, Luke followed them and sat at the counter.
“So, Luke,” Ray asked as he set Julie to slicing garlic bread and Carlos to making a salad. “How long have you been a werewolf?”
“Dad!” Julie hissed, her face darkening. Luke tried to bite back his smile - she was adorable when flustered. “You can’t just ask someone that - it’s rude!”
“It’s, um, really not,” Luke offered with a hesitant smile. “I have to fill it out on forms all the time and I get asked a lot by strangers.”
“It’s rude if it isn’t information you want to freely offer,” Julie said firmly. Luke faintly noted it was the loudest he’d heard her talk in months, since her mom died. “You don’t have to tell us.”
“I want to,” Luke said, surprising himself. “I really don’t mind. I was bitten when I was about five years old, and I’ve been having the change ever since.”
“So no magical blood in your family?” Ray asked, stirring the pot he’d been working on. Luke thought it smelled like pasta sauce, but on nights of the change his nose had been known to overreact to smells nearby so he couldn’t be sure. “I understand lycanthropy can be passed on through bloodlines too, if one or both of the parents are werewolves themselves.”
“No magical blood in our family, at least not that I know of. I have heard of some fun combinations with lycanthropy though.” Luke smiled fondly, recalling Reggie’s childhood neighbours - one had been a werewolf and the other part phoenix, which meant once a month Reggie watched their kids turn into various species of birds that looked like they were on fire. “No, as far as we know with my cousins and such, I’m the only one with magical blood.”
“Do you have super cool powers?” Carlos asked, his eyes lighting up. Julie spotted disaster before Luke did and quickly snatched away the knife Carlos had been using to slice ingredients before he could take off one of his fingers. Carlos ignored his sister, his eyes alight on Luke.
Luke rubbed at the back of his neck. “Uh, my senses get more sensitive this close to the full moon - I’m not allowed to drive the week of the full moon, my ears are too sensitive. Eyesight gets kind of cool though - it’s really sharpened so it’s fun to see how much I can zoom in. Tastes get funky, and so does my sense of touch. On the night of the full moon I can’t have anyone touch me leading up to the change, my skin is too sensitive.”
“Do you just change the night of the full moon?” Ray asked, handing Carlos plates to set out. Luke tried to take some, but Carlos danced out of reach.
“It varies. Sometimes I’ll be lucky and it’s just that night, sometimes it’s the day of it, and if I’m really unlucky I’m stuck as a wolf the whole week of.” Luke tried to grin at Carlos. “Ever try to take English notes with paws? It’s not fun.”
“The whole week?” Ray asked sympathetically. “That must be rough.”
Luke shrugged. “It could be worse. Sucks that I can’t get off of school for it though - if I’m going to be stuck with paws, having to learn about advancements in goblin metalworking shouldn’t be a part of it. I’m a werewolf - I’m never going to be allowed anywhere near their forges.”
“Makes for pretty jewelry though,” Julie pointed out, lifting her choker with one finger. Luke’s eyesight zoomed in to a ridiculous degree without his consent.
He could see the light glinting on the gold of her charms. He could also see the fluttering of her pulse in her neck against the chain, setting the charms just slightly in motion. His nose sharpened, and he could smell her clean scent - something flowery, combined with wood. Like dahlias with his favourite acoustic. His hearing followed suit, and underneath the sound of Ray telling them dinner was ready, Luke could hear Julie’s pulse. It started to speed up, and it wasn’t until her hand came out to touch his forearm that Luke realized it was because of him.
She was worried about him.
“Luke?” she repeated. He forcibly dragged his senses back to their human range and smiled at her. He knew his canines had to have sharpened, just enough that it would be unsettling, but she didn’t look afraid. “Are you okay? Dinner is ready.”
“I’m okay,” he said, forcing his demeanor to perk up. “Dinner?”
Luke had been right - it was pasta, and though Julie’s aunt made an appearance to say they shouldn’t be eating leftovers again, it was the best leftovers Luke had ever had. He had to force himself to his feet afterwards to help clean up, and then it was time for Julie to show him her observation area.
While Luke got his stuff together, Julie and her dad had a quiet conversation. Luke tried his best to keep his hearing reigned in, but a bit slipped through against his will. It was snatches here and there, but one exchange slipped all the way through.
“Are you sure, mija? I know being in the studio is hard since your mom.”
“I’m sure. Mom would have wanted me to help.”
It was an important place to Julie that they were going to, he realized. He had to be careful - he wasn’t generally destructive when in canine form, but he could be clumsy with his larger frame and he’d been known to break things before now.
Julie came back to him and smiled, though it was slightly shaky. “Ready?”
Luke nodded, holding up his school bag. “Ready.”
She led them to the garage he’d woken up in twice before. When she turned on the lights, Luke got a better look than he had when he’d been bolting out, trying to force a change so that he wouldn’t be caught in his birthday suit in front of the girl he liked.
The space was soft and intimate with just the fairy lights Julie was using to guide her way forwards. Luke trailed after her, noting the wooden beams with chairs floating from them far above their heads, a comfortable looking couch that he would have loved to have woken up on instead of the concrete of last time, and a thick rug that he stepped onto with a sound of bliss as his feet sank into the luxurious fabric.
“This is my mom’s studio,” Julie announced, her voice almost too steady. “Please don’t destroy anything - the instruments are here to calm you down, so if we can get through this without problems I would appreciate it.”
Luke dropped his bag on the couch and hesitantly sat. “Have you done your homework already?”
Julie nodded, not sitting. “I did it while you and Carlos were playing xBox. I’m going to sort out a bed for myself in the loft while you do your work and get ready, okay?”
The change came upon him unexpectedly, and Luke noted distantly as he dropped his pencil that this change seemed to coincide with sundown. The seam up the side of his pants gave easily as his muscles shifted, and he was quick to shed his shirt to save it from a similar fate.
“Luke?”
Luke’s head turned to face Julie, staring over the balcony in the loft. His teeth were gritted against the change as he fought it back, trying to smile at her. His body seemed to complain, sending a lick of pain up his spine that had him gasping - he hadn’t resisted the change since he was six.
“I’ll be fine,” he managed to grit out. “I’ll finish the sums in the -”
His self control snapped, and the change overtook him. In the blink of an eye, Luke was staring at Julie from a position of all fours.
“Huh,” she said, her voice sounding different in Luke’s canine ears - more musical. “That didn’t happen the way I thought it would.”
Luke let out a small yip, curious about how she thought the change would happen. She didn’t answer him, instead coming downstairs to gather up his papers and set them on a shelf far out of reach.
“That should keep those safe,” she said, turning back to him. “Do you need to like… be let out? Go do your business?”
Luke gave her an indignant look and a sharp yap, turning back to the couch.
“Okay, so you’re house trained. Well, in that case I’m going to go up to the loft, okay?”
Julie waited for his yip of affirmation before turning and beginning to climb into the loft. Luke settled on the carpet, distantly thankful that he didn’t need to find something to cover concrete.
“Uh, Luke?”
He lifted his head, one ear flopping to the side. Julie was peering curiously at him over the railing.
“You know you can get on the couch, right? You won’t shed too much, and if you do it’s okay, we can get it cleaned.”
Luke eyed up the couch, determined that him getting on it was not likely to end well, and put his head back down. Honestly he would have liked to be running on the beach, but Julie looked like she was ready to settle for the night, and he wasn’t about to drag her out to the beach just for his zoomies. He had some sense of decency in this form.
Julie looked at him and frowned. “Okay, you understand English at least, so either you don’t want to get up on the couch or something is keeping you from doing it. Bark once for the former, twice for the latter.”
Luke considered for a moment before barking once. He didn’t need Julie to know he was worried he would break her couch, not when she was doing him such a big favor.
“I don’t believe you,” she said in a lofty tone, “but in the interests of respecting your autonomy as a lycanthrope, I will not push the matter further.”
Luke smiled (well, as much as a dog can smile) and put his head down on his paws.
When the thunder came, he wasn’t prepared.
He knew other werewolves had to learn to handle storms, especially with the way their hearing was magnified. But every other time there had been a storm, he’d had his mom with him. She would sing softly, rubbing his ears between her fingertips, and he would fall asleep more easily to the sound of her voice. In recent years, he’d had the good fortune to just not change on rainy nights - it wasn’t like thunderstorms were common in Los Angeles, after all.
The thunder was loud enough to send him whimpering into the darkest space he could find, his dignity forgotten - in the face of something that loud, he couldn’t even remember his name, let alone why he was in an unfamiliar room. He curled in the corner and began to whine. He knew, in the distant human part of his mind, that whining wasn’t going to help him, but he was powerless to resist his instincts.
“Luke?”
He opened his eyes to see bare feet padding down a ladder. His hiding space was near the ladder leading to the loft, where Julie must have heard him.
Her face popped out of the darkness, her hair encased in a turquoise hat of some kind. Luke was too busy cringing away from the thunder to wonder what it was for. She looked worried, and he would have felt bad if he had the space for it.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, crouching on her haunches and patting her knees. Luke thought about approaching her, but when another crack of thunder came he instead tucked his nose under his tail and let out a small moan.
“Is the thunder bothering you?” Julie asked, not seeming to wait for an answer. “Of course it is. Your hearing - you said you were more sensitive the closer to the full moon it is, and full moon is tomorrow night. Of course you’d be struggling right now. I need to find a way to distract you.”
Luke watched through one eye as Julie searched around the space they were in, trying to find something. When she victoriously emerged with a battered acoustic guitar, she brandished it at Luke like he was supposed to be impressed. Instead, he raised his paw.
Hello, he was trying to communicate. I currently possess a set of paws, not fingers. How am I going to play that?
Julie smiled at him. “Not for you, genius. For me. I learned when I was little - I should be able to play you something to calm you down.”
She didn’t sit next to Luke and stroke his ears, but that could have been for the best - his senses were already overloaded with her. Her scent, her voice, the sound of her pulse - it was all crashing through his ears just like the thunder.
And then Julie began to strum a tune, and he forgot about the weather.
“Wake up, wake up, if it’s all you do,” she sang softly. “Look out, look inside of you, it’s not what you lost…”
She trailed away, taking a moment to wipe at her eyes. Luke realized she was crying, and he did what any good werewolf slash seventeen year old boy does when he realizes the girl he likes is crying.
He had an internal panic, gave himself an internal pep talk, balked again at the sight of her tears, and nudged at her arms until she set the guitar aside. Once he knew it was safe (he wasn’t a monster, after all) (well…) (nope, debate for another time with his boys) he nosed his way into her arms and put his chin over her shoulder, forcing her to turn her head to the side or risk coming away with a mouthful of fur. She laughed wetly and hugged him, though to be fair the angle meant she had to or risk being crushed by him.
“Thanks, Luke. I just… get overwhelmed sometimes with how much I miss her. That’s actually the first time I’ve sung in a year - I used to get scared of storms like you, and Mom would sing to me.”
Luke huffed gently at her, trying to encourage her to talk, but it seemed she was finished. They sat like that for a moment longer before Julie drew back.
“I know it’s technically closer to the storm, but do you want to sleep in the loft with me?” she asked quietly, her eyes on her hands. “It might be easier with someone else there.”
Luke tilted his head at her before deliberately moving to the stairs. Julie smiled and got to her feet.
Luke woke up warm and, thankfully, human. It was second nature to go through his senses, to reign them in a little so he didn’t get overwhelmed.
Touch first. Reign in the hyper awareness of the blanket covering him, of whatever it was tickling his nose.
Reign in the smell of dahlias and old wood.
Reign in the sound of another heartbeat, of small breaths being released on his neck…
Hang on.
When Luke opened his eyes, he was greeted with a turquoise satin cap sitting right underneath his nose. A quick look down made him aware that Julie had fallen asleep pressed against his side, a blanket separating them. As a wolf, that hadn’t seemed like a problem.
As a very human, very naked teenage boy who would like to live to see his next change?
Big freaking problem.
Julie shifted and sighed, and Luke had to start reciting Alex's potions ingredients to keep himself from doing something that would make the rest of his interactions with her more awkward than the time he walked in on Bobby in the shower.
Wolfsbane, newt eye, mustard seed, he thought determinedly, looking at the ceiling.
“Good morning,” Julie mumbled, her voice rough. It sent shivers down Luke’s spine and… to other places. Places he was quick to shift, lest Julie think he had no self control whatsoever.
“Morning,” he said, his voice overshooting into clown vicinity. “Um, can you… look away?”
Julie squinted at him in confusion. “Is it the naked thing? Luke, I have a brother. It doesn’t bother me.”
“It bothers me,” he said with another octave shift.
Julie sighed and closed her eyes, turning to face the wall of the loft. Luke bundled the blanket over his groin and escaped down the stairs, only taking a full breath when he had pants on.
Halfway through him pulling on a new shirt, there was a knock on the door to the studio. Ray poked his head around, looking curious.
“Oh, good,” he said happily when he spotted Luke. “I was worried you’d still be a wolf - I have no idea what wolves eat.”
Luke finished pulling on his shirt and smiled at Mr. Molina. “Usually cinnamon toast, though I’d be open to trying other things. I draw the line at dog food though.”
Ray laughed appreciatively. “Breakfast is almost ready - you two head up when you’re ready.”
“Thank you, Papi,” Julie called from the loft. Ray turned back towards the door, pausing before pushing it open.
“Oh, Luke?”
Luke looked up from his duffle where he’d been hunting for shoes. “Yes, sir?”
“I trust you didn’t sleep next to my daughter without a shirt on,” Ray continued pleasantly. There was an undercurrent of threat laced through his words that Luke didn’t need enhanced hearing to understand.
Well, sir, as a matter of fact, I didn’t have anything on. How about that bacon?
“We’ll be up in a minute, Papi,” Julie called pointedly. Ray gave Luke one more pleasantly terrifying look before exiting the loft. Luke groaned and sat on the couch.
“Well, that went well,” Julie called. Luke shot her a dry look, but still waited for her at the door before they went up to the house together.
And the expression on Ray’s face when he heard Julie sing as she flipped pancakes was worth every teasing look he got from Reggie, Alex, Willie and Bobby when he told them about the night over lunch.
“You woke up buck ass naked?” Reggie blurted, forgetting to control his volume and his word selection.
Luke hissed at him to lower his voice, and Reggie immediately stopped talking. Thankfully most of the student body was used to hearing about Luke Patterson waking up somewhere naked - not something to be proud of usually, but in this case helpful.
“I feel like you’re missing the point,” Willie said once they’d made sure Julie’s reputation wasn’t in danger. “Julie sang. She hasn’t done that since her mom died.”
Luke nodded, his smile growing wistful. “It was really pretty, too.”
Bobby groaned. “Patterson’s in love, everyone, must be Tuesday.”
“It’s Friday,” a feminine voice noted. Luke almost choked on the carrot he’d been absentmindedly working away at, stolen from Reggie.
“Hi, Julie,” Alex said cheerfully, cruelly ignoring Luke as he met his end on a root vegetable. “What’s up?”
“Just coming to see if Luke is coming over to my house again tonight,” Julie said, taking off her cap to rearrange her hair. Luke noted that her wardrobe had shifted - no more flannel, no more oversized shirt.
Baby steps back into the world.
So it was with the sappiest smile in the world (and a lot of sniggering from his friends) that he gave his answer.
“Wouldn’t miss it.”