Work Text:
It was evident to everyone around that Normal Oak did not fit in. His tan skin glowed with life in ways others like Hermie’s pallid ghostly complexion didn’t. His eyes were bright, with joy sure, but didn’t glow literally in the same way some of his friends did. It was strange to see this seemingly average mortal constantly hanging around a demon, vampire, and zombie, but there he was. The only indication that maybe he wasn’t entirely human was the slightly pointed tips of his ears that indicated witches far back in his bloodline. Overall, Normal Oak was an anomaly, and Hermie Unworthy found himself absolutely fascinated.
The day he decided to approach him was towards the end of their lunch period. Two of his friends, Taylor and Scary had already left on their way to class, but Normal was waiting with Lincoln as the young zombie tried to wrestle his rotting shoulder back into place. When Hermie managed to make his finger corporeal enough, he tapped lightly on Normal’s shoulder, and the other boy jumped. His eyes were wide with shock and he sniffed a bit, wiping at his nose.
“Hey, I didn’t notice you approach,” Normal said, seemingly bewildered.
Hermie chuckled, “well my footsteps don’t really make noise,” he gestured down at himself, “ghost body and all that.”
Normal nodded, brushing his nose again, as a look of realization passed over his face. “That makes sense.” He smiled up at Hermie but didn’t say anything more until Lincoln, arm back hanging loosely in place, nudged him in the side. “Oh, um, can I help you?”
“Do pardon me if this comes across as rude,” Hermie started, “but I just had to ask, are you mortal?”
Normal startled, seemingly taken aback, and coughed lightly, “yeah actually I am,” he laughed nervously. “My family knows about all this because we’re witches pretty far back, but basically I just wanted to go to school with my friends,” and he gestured to Lincoln next to him. “But yeah, human pretty much, and alive. Blood pumping, heart beating.”
“Way to rub it in,” Lincoln muttered next to him and Hermie snickered lightly.
He appraised Normal’s hunched posture with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t know how much I believe you,” Hermie stated, “I’ll figure it out though,” and then he winked and walked away.
The second time he came across Normal was entirely by accident. Hermie was in the bathroom fixing his hair in the middle of second period when the door slammed open. Bustling in came Normal Oak himself, a crazed look in his eyes as he slammed the door behind him. For a moment Hermie thought he saw shining gold receding from the other boy’s irises, but when he looked closer they were back to their regular brown. Normal was breathing heavily as he leaned against the door and hadn’t seemed to notice Hermie yet.
“Excuse me,” Hermie cleared his throat, “are you alright?”
Normal turned those eyes on him, though they were less frantic now, and more deer in headlights. “Fine,” he gasped out quickly, clearly anything but.
Hermie gave him a knowing look. “What happened?”
Normal heaved a large sigh as he picked himself up from the wall. “It's nothing, really,” he moved next to Hermie at the mirror to fix his disheveled hair, “I just got into an argument with the vice principal and got a bit too worked up.”
Hermie moved behind Normal and solidified his hands enough to the point that he could push Normal’s own out of the way and set his bangs to hang perfectly in front of his eyes, smoothing out his stray hairs. “You’re 0 for two in convincing me of things, but I’ll let this one go.” He turned Normal to face him. “If you need anything else, I’m happy to help.”
Normal stayed stock still in front of him, cheeks tinted a slight rose. He wasn’t even breathing, just staring wide-eyed back into Hermie’s eyes. Hermie smirked slightly and Normal let out a small cough, before pushing past him and sprinting back out of the bathroom just as fast as he came in. Hermie was too shocked by the quick mood shift to have noticed the slight gold that had begun to bleed into Normal’s irises.
After the bathroom incident, Hermie made a point to start hanging around Normal and his friends more. He delighted both in Normal’s constant flustered reactions and his friends' general aggravation with him.
Lincoln was still wary of him, and to be quite honest Hermie understood. He had been there when Hermie had approached his friend for no apparent reason and was now seeing him spend a lot of time around them. His trepidation made sense, not to mention how utterly opposed zombies and ghosts tended to be.
Scary seemed like she didn’t like him, but Scary seemed like she didn’t really like anybody. Her protectiveness of Normal was evident, baring her fangs at Hermie whenever he seemed to get too close to Normal despite knowing they couldn’t do anything to him. Hermie knew she meant well though because if she had actually wanted to threaten him, she would’ve done so with her immense witch powers, and not the vampire side that had no effects against ghosts like Hermie. Still, though, she seemed to watch all their interactions like a hawk, almost to make sure she didn’t need to step in.
Taylor was the only one of Normal’s friends Hermie really hit it off with. The young demon had told Hermie about how many times he’s apparently been to Hell, and that Hermie was easily the coolest dead person he’d ever met. (Scary and Link scowled and grumbled at that to which Taylor had replied that they were undead and the difference was huge.) He was constantly trying to convince Hermie to come to visit Hell with him, which Hermie vehemently denied, too worried about the possibility of his dead soul getting bound there. Overall, Taylor’s general enthusiasm about all things monster and supernatural made it quite clear that he was new to the whole endeavor himself, a story Hermie had yet to hear.
Most of his time though was spent hanging around with Normal. Hermie would get him to help practice his lines and Normal would run new cheers by him. Through it all, Hermie continued to flirt heavily with Normal, who seemingly never picked up on it, though got flustered often . The two of them had been spending a lot of time together and when came time for the homecoming dance, it was only natural that the two had decided to go together.
In honor of the occasion, Hermie had gotten Normal a gift. It was a simple necklace, a charm of the school logo on a chain, all solid silver. Hermie had gotten a weird look when he purchased it, but he had confidence that Normal would like it.
He didn’t end up giving Normal the necklace until he was being dropped off on his porch. The entire night had been spent dancing through their laughs and their friends’ teasing and it had just never come up. Hermie had forgotten about it until Normal was about to bid him adieu at his doorstep.
“Wait,” Hermie called as Normal had begun to walk away, “I’ve got something for you.”
Normal turned back to look at him and cocked his head in question, a move not unlike one of a curious dog.
Hermie beckoned him closer as he reached into his suit jacket for the necklace box. When he pulled it out, Normal’s face lit up excitedly but fell once Hermie opened the box. “It’s a necklace,” he said, all of a sudden unsure, “for you.”
“Oh,” was all Normal said. “Is it silver?”
The look on his face was unreadable so Hermie cleared his throat trying to ease the tension. “Yep, good eye.”
“Thanks,” Normal said, but his smile was melancholy. He grabbed the box through Hermie’s hands that phased through the box once Normal’s were in place to catch it, and he shut the box, putting it into his suit jacket without once taking the necklace out. Normal scratched the back of his head and simply said “bye,” with a shrug before he was off again into the night.
Hermie never once saw Normal wearing the necklace.
Despite the necklace debacle, Hermie and Normal’s relationship didn’t seem to strain. They still hung out plenty, in a group and alone, and were still flirting, a lot. Things were going so well that Hermie, with Taylor’s encouragement, had finally worked up the nerve to ask Normal out.
The plan was that Friday night they would go see a play at the local theater before heading out to dinner. It was nothing out of the ordinary of what they’d typically do, but Hermie was hoping maybe this time there’d be a little more involved. He’d been practicing making his lips corporeal.
He figured he’d ask Normal in a casual setting, so as to seem relatively calm about everything, and thus there they were, in the hallway walking to English class. Hermie took one large breath before quickly saying, “Do you want to go on a date with me Friday night?”
What he expected was a blushing acceptance from Normal or an awkward rejection. What he hadn’t expected was for Normal to pale significantly and stop dead in his tracks in the middle of the hallway. “Friday?” he choked out, and when Hermie nodded, he bolted in the opposite direction.
Usually, Hermie wouldn’t have much of an issue chasing people, as he didn’t actually run, more glide quickly, but Normal was fast . He was gunning down the hallway at a downright supernatural speed, literally. When Hermie finally caught up with him at the end of the hall, Normal was slumped against the lockers with his head n his knees.
“We don’t have to do Friday if that doesn’t work,” Hermie offered desperately, utterly lost to what he could’ve said. When Normal looked up at him with watery eyes, the irises were completely glowing gold. “What is happening?” Hermie asked, bewildered.
Normal took a deep breath and then let out a full-body sigh. As he breathed out, the gold slowly drained from his eyes. “I overreacted,” he said solemnly, “sorry about that.”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about,” Hermie tutted, and Normal sighed again.
“You’re right, might as well tell you,” and then there was a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, Normal Oak still sat in front of Hermie, but he looked much different. His eyes irises flamed gold, and Hermie could see a set of sharp teeth protruding from between his lips. His patchy mustache filled out slightly more, and Hermie could see slight sideburns growing along his face, largely hidden beneath his long hair. The most noticeable feature though was the two fluffy, brown wolf ears swiveling on the top of his head. “Friday’s the full moon.”
“So you’re a werewolf?” Hermie asked tentatively. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Normal grimaced. “Werewolves are… complicated. My dad was bitten, so my sister and I were born. We don’t really have a large proud pack lineage and my dad doesn’t even know who bit him. I guess that’s frowned upon?” Normal shrugged. “I don’t really understand it, but Dad says it's best to hide so we do.”
“That does explain a lot,” Hermie realized. “The necklace?”
“Really cool, but would’ve burned me.” Normal looked especially saddened by this fact. “And I get pretty flustered around you because you don’t have a scent so I can’t really tell what you’re thinking,” he mumbled something else after that, but Hermie didn’t catch it, only Normal’s embarrassed look sent towards the floor.
“What was that?”
Normal huffed. “I said , you’re also pretty cute, so that makes me nervous. When my heart rate picks up it makes me wolf out so to speak so that’s why I’m always running away.” He shot Hermie a shy smile. “It’s not because I don’t want to be around you.”
Hermie chuckled. “Well, I am putting a lot of things together now. But anyways, if Friday doesn’t work, when does?” Normal beamed at him.