Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Many years ago, a wolf pack found an abandoned baby in the snow. Its wrinkled red face screwed up from crying, its tiny furless feet kicking uselessly at the air. They thought to eat it, except… It looked like them, with long pointy ears and a fluffy brown tail. So, an executive decision was made, and the mother wolf picked the baby up by the scruff, carried it back to the den, and nursed it slowly back to health, and as the years passed, it grew into a strong, healthy member of the pack.

As Pearl grew up, she was always told there were two places she was forbidden from going. Near the village, or into the deer forest. The villagers were dangerous and would attack her on sight, and the deer, while food, would certainly do the same. At first, she listened. But once she grew too old to still live with the pack, she began to grow curious.

————

Pearl was ten the first time she intentionally broke a rule her pack had given her. Well, not broke! Just bent a little. Yes, she wasn’t allowed near the village, but she was just curious! And besides, the old stone field wasn’t really in the village was it? Just next to it! She stalked out of the forest silently and changed to her hybrid form to observe. She didn’t want to start a fight, just watch.

She was sniffing around one of the stones when she heard voices. She froze, listening.

“I dunno about this, Impulse.”

“I’m telling you guys, this could work! Cleo’s not mean, she just looks a little scary!”

“Yeah, but they’re as big as a grown-up. Plus, we aren’t allowed to be in the graveyard anyway, so how will we explain how we found her?”

Pearl tentatively peeked around the corner of the stone she was hidden behind to see three villagers sitting around one of the other rocks. Two of them were her size, and one of them was absolutely massive. Presumably this one was fully grown and the other two were young. The biggest thing that stood out about them, however, was their appearance.

They look like me. Only one of them had the same ears or tail, and his looked different from hers, but besides that they all looked similar to her hybrid form. Obviously they were all human, but having never seen a human before, Pearl was startled at the similarities.

One had blue fur and ears that were pointy, but not like hers. They were furless, and stuck straight out from the sides of his head. One had brown fur like her, with floppy ears and a fluffy tail similar to hers but not quite the same. The final one of the three was absolutely massive, with patchy looking green skin and flaming red fur. She was sitting on the top of one of the stones while the other two sat at her feet. Pearl couldn’t take her eyes off the three, fascinated.

Transfixed as she was, she forgot to watch her footing and stood on a twig, snapping it in two. The large green one looked up, staring all around. “What was that?”

The one with a tail growled deep in the back of his throat. “It came from that grave over there.”

“It was probably just a squirrel, guys.” The blue furred one said. “It’s fine.”

“It smells like a wolf.” The one with a tail snarled, ears standing erect, tail wagging slowly in a threatening manner. Not a wolf himself then, maybe a dog? Like the ones that lived in the village?

“Wolves don’t come near here, Impulse, everyone knows that.” The blue one replied.

“No he’s right, Scott.” The large green one cut in. “It does smell like wolf over here.”

The blue one sighed and stood up. “All right, I’ll go get Dad.”

“No, wait.” The dog boy stopped him. “How impressed will everyone be if we take down a wolf!”

“Impulse, we’re kids! Dad said kids aren’t allowed to go after wolves!”
“He said kids aren’t allowed in the graveyard too, but here we are. Besides, Cleo is grown-up sized! She can protect us! Right, Cleo?”

The green one nodded and balled her paws into fists. Pearl quailed away. Claws or not, she did not want to be anywhere near those things.

“Come on!” The dog boy stalked towards the stone where Pearl was hiding. He was painfully loud and easy to follow, whoever taught him to hunt should be ashamed.

Pearl remained in her hybrid form for now, perhaps if she looked more like them she could escape with her life if she was overpowered. After all, that was how her pack first took her in. She tensed, waiting, then pounced over the top of the stone and slammed directly into the dog boy’s chest. He yelped in surprise and fell backwards onto the ground with Pearl standing over him, growling. Immediately, a massive paw closed around her neck and lifted her off the ground. She thrashed about helplessly, unable to break the green woman’s grip around her throat.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t bash open your skull on my headstone right now.” They snarled, eyes dark and dangerous.

Seeing she was outmatched, Pearl switched her strategy. She flattened her ears and curled in her tail, making herself as small as possible and whined submissively around the massive fingers crushing her windpipe. This was no different from when Mother used to scold her, she just needed to make herself small and weak and they’d let her go.

“Don’t give me that.” The woman snarled. “Answer me!” She shook Pearl around slightly and she whimpered in pain.

“Cleo, stop!” The blue furred boy grabbed the green woman's arm. “That’s not a wolf, that’s another kid!”

“Who cares! It attacked you!”

“We were trying to kill her.” The dog boy pointed out. “Also she can’t exactly answer you if you choke her to death.”

The green woman looked away, hesitating. “I guess…”

The two boys moved to form a circle with the woman around Pearl. The blue furred boy looked up at her with what looked like pity on his face. “Just put her down and give her a chance to explain herself, then we can decide together what to do with her, okay?”

“…Fine.” The woman released her grip and Pearl landed in a heap on the grass. “You have one minute, start talking.”

Pearl huddled on the grass trying to make herself small, to make it as clear as possible that she wasn’t a threat.

“Why isn’t she saying anything?”

“Maybe she’s scared?” The dog boy tilted his head to the side. “I don’t know how wolves talk, but she’s doing what Ren and I do when we get scolded, but turned up to a hundred.”

“Maybe she’d be more willing to talk if we introduced ourselves.” The blue furred boy reached out his paw. “I’m Scott.”

Pearl flinched away, but that brought her closer to the green woman, who was still scowling down at her, so she quickly scrambled back into the middle of the circle.

“I’m Impulse.” The dog boy nodded at her. Pearl was getting the most positive messages from him, so she stuck closer to his side of the circle. Both boys looked expectantly up at the green woman, who grumbled, but conceded.

“Cleo.” They grunted, arms crossed. “Now, who are you?”

“Pe…arl.”

“Pearl?”

She nodded

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Pearl.” Scott held out his paw again, and Pearl stared at it in bafflement.

“It’s a handshake, you do it when you meet someone new.” Scott took Pearl's paw in his and moved it up and down for a couple seconds before letting go. Pearl looked at her paw for a moment, then carefully held it out towards Impulse.

“Yeah! That’s right!” Impulse smiled and did the same, tail wagging.
Finally, Pearl tried it on Cleo, so far the most aggressive of the three.
Cleo just glared at her for a moment, then sighed and returned the handshake. Pearl noticed that each of her fingers ended in long black claws, and shuddered at the thought of them entering her throat had she failed to convince the woman to spare her.

“Scott! Impulse!” A new voice, deeper than any of the three from before, echoed across the graveyard.

Impulse’s ears shot up, and a look of panic crossed his face. “That’s my dad! Pearl! Cleo! Hide!”

Cleo dove behind a gravestone without hesitation, Pearl following close behind.

“We’ll be back tomorrow if we don’t get grounded.” Scott promised. “See you later, Cleo!” He and Impulse snuck away embarrassingly poorly.
After a minute or so, Cleo motioned that it was safe to come out.
“They’ll be back. As long as their stupid butts don’t get caught, anyway.”

Pearl laughed, then tapped the ground in front of Cleo to get her attention.

“What?” She asked. She wasn’t friendly exactly, but she seemed less murderous than before, at least.

Pearl pointed at the patchwork of stitches that covered Cleo’s mottled green skin. “Can… ask?”

Cleo stiffened for a moment, looking away, then let out a resigned sigh. “Fine. As an apology for trying to kill you, I’ll tell you about the stitches.”

They ran their fingers over the tight string on her arm. “So the reason why I’m so big, and why Scott and Impulse only hang out with me in the graveyard is because… I’m a zombie.” She looked at Pearl, as if expecting some sort of reaction. Upon not receiving one, she attempted to clarify. “A zombie.”

Pearl nodded.

“As in, an undead monster of rotting flesh that feasts on the bodies of innocents. That zombie.”

Pearl nodded again.

“You do know what that is, right?”

Another nod.

“Aren’t you scared?”

Pearl shrugged and made a squeezing motion in front of her neck, miming being choked and gagging dramatically before flopping over and playing dead.

Cleo laughed. “I guess that’s fair.” Her face fell as she went back to her explanation. “Anyway, since I’m technically dead, my body is rotting. So, whenever one of my body parts stops working, I just get a new one from one of the other bodies here and Scott helps me sew it on.” She looked down at her hands and spoke her next words haltingly, as though they were hard to get out. “Look, Pearl. I’m sorry for getting so angry and paranoid. It’s just, Scott and Impulse are the only friends I’ve got, and if something happened to them I could never forgive myself. And when you’re dead… never is a long time.”

Pearl nodded somberly, then paused, wondering if her next question would make the zombie angry.

“What is it?”

Pearl paused for a moment, not sure how to articulate her question, then settled on drawing a pair of little stick figures in the dirt with her finger, one with pointy ears, one with a tail.

“Scott and Impulse? What about them?”

Pearl drew two more stick figures next to the first pair, one with fluffy ears and a tail, one with stitch marks.

“Us? Ok.”

She drew a couple of little houses to represent the village, then drew an arrow from Scott and Impulse back to it.

“Yes, they live in the village.”

She drew the two again, talking with a bigger figure, then an arrow from the village back to the drawings of her and Cleo, who were now surrounded by larger figures holding knives and fire.

“Are you worried they’ll tell someone about us?”

Pearl nodded.

“Y’know, at first I was too. Most of the people in the village would kill me on sight if they knew I was here, same as you. But Scott and Impulse have known about me for almost a year now and no one’s come after me yet.”

Pearl thought about it for a moment, then nodded. If Scott and Impulse were going to turn in Cleo they would have by now, and they couldn’t turn Pearl in without turning in Cleo as well. Therefore, they were safe to be near, at least for now.

Pearl looked up at the setting sun. She really needed to get going or she might get lost. She took a step back toward the woods, then looked apologetically back at Cleo.

“I’ll be fine.” The zombie waved her off with a smile.“I sleep here every night. Besides, it’s not like I get cold.” Her expression turned hopeful. “Are you gonna… be back tomorrow? If the guys get grounded it’s gonna be a long week.”

Pearl nodded. She liked talking to the zombie, even if they had tried to kill her. Besides, she could use the change of pace. She smiled back at Cleo, then shifted into her wolf form and ran away back into the woods.

Years passed, and Pearl and her friends, (except Cleo, of course), grew. She learned to cover her ears with her hood so she wouldn’t draw attention from passersby, and could even enter the village for short periods of time, though she tended to avoid it since it made her nervous.

One night when she was sixteen, Pearl was walking home through the trees in her human form, when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She had thrown back the hood of her cloak when she left the graveyard, so her ears were on full display. Quickly, she yanked it back up so any evidence of her wolfish blood was obscured under the red cloth and white fur trim. With her ears pressed uncomfortably against her skull under the hood and her tail obscured by the floor length cape, Pearl went after the source of the movement.

She stalked silently towards the disturbance until she came across a small clearing with a girl sitting in the center. She shifted, and Pearl saw the body of a deer smoothly connected to her torso at the waist, a cervitaur. Her hair was orange like autumn leaves, with a pair of small bone-white antlers sticking out. Her deer half was a warm brown, like the sticky-sweet caramel Impulse had once gotten from his father’s sweet shop and brought to the graveyard to share. She was wearing a green jacket with a cartoonish rendering of a snail hand-stitched onto the back over a plain white shirt. She was incredibly pretty, and Pearl felt almost drawn to her. Then the girl turned around, and Pearl’s mind went completely blank.

Forest green eyes bored into hers, bright and intelligent and sparkling with curiosity and mischief. She waved at Pearl from her spot in the grass. “Hello there!”

Pearl jumped, stared for a moment, then turned and bolted all the way back to her den. As she curled up to sleep, she tried to scrub those eyes from her brain, but in the end she knew they would appear in her dreams that night.

The next day

“Alright, so, let me get this straight. You saw this pretty cervitaur girl in the woods, she acknowledged you and was friendly, and you just… ran away?”

Pearl nodded wordlessly, head buried in her knees.

“Scott, I think you may finally be outmatched in the useless gay department.” Cleo leaned back to call over her shoulder to the elf, who was currently losing a game of rummy to Impulse. “I haven’t heard anything that pathetic since the poppy incident.”

Scott went pink. “It was one time!” He smirked at Pearl. “She’s not wrong, though.”

She groaned. “Why do I tell you guys anything?”

“Aww, you love us.” Cleo laughed as Impulse trotted over and patted Pearl on the back. “Don’t worry! You’ll get it eventually!”

“Are you trying to be reassuring or condescending?”

“Yes.”

“You all suck.”

“Love you too.” Scott moved to join them and sat down next to her. “Anyway, what’s the plan?”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t honestly think we’re gonna let it end there, do you?” Cleo took her usual spot behind them, leaning over them with her elbows propped on her gravestone.

“Yeah! We’re gonna help you!” Impulse sat down on her other side, tail wagging in anticipation. Pearl groaned.

“How? She’s a cervitaur, they’re trained to be scared of wolves from a super young age. She’ll just be scared of me, I don’t want that! Besides, how on earth am I going to even find her again without straight up stalking her?”

“Well, you don’t necessarily have to reveal that you’re a werewolf right away, do you?” Scott pointed out. “Just wander around that area in human form with your hood up and see if you can find her!”

“That’s a horrible idea.”

“You got a better one?”

“...No.”

“Well then! Off you go, and tell us what happens!” Cleo pulled Pearl to her feet, yanked up her hood, and gave her a little shove towards the forest. “Good luck!”

“I hate it here.”

Chapter Text

Ever since it happened, Gem hadn’t been able to get that moment out of her mind. A pair of dark eyes peering out from under a hood, a look that should have been menacing, yet Gem couldn’t help but feel perfectly safe. Little did she know, it wouldn’t be long until they met again.

She had been out foraging with her brother, Joel, when he came up with a competition to see who could get the most food by sundown. Never one to back down from a challenge, Gem had agreed, and the two of them had split up to search.

Hours passed, and Gem’s basket was overflowing, as was her determination to win. Honestly, who did Joel think he was? She was going to crush him. She was bending down to pick a colony of mushrooms when she heard a twig snap and saw a flash of brown and red between the trees. Immediately her instincts kicked in and she reared back, looking around for the source of the disturbance. “Hello?”

Another flash of red, and a shape came out of the trees. It was the person from before, those same dark eyes, one blue one red, under the hood of a red cloak.

“Oh! It’s you!” Gem waved to them, and after a moment they waved back.

“Hello.” It was a girl's voice, low and hypnotic, with an accent Gem couldn’t quite place. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“You too! Come sit down!” Gem settled in the grass and patted the ground beside her. The girl obliged, seating herself on the ground beside Gem, cloak pooling around her. “Sweet berries?”

“Oh, don’t mind if I do.” The girl took a cluster of berries from the basket and began to pull them off and pop them into her mouth one by one. “M’name’s Pearl by the way, what’s yours?”

“I’m Gem! It’s nice to meet you, Pearl! What brings you to this part of the forest?”

“Oh, just taking a walk. You?”

“Gathering contest with my brother.”

“Gem!” Joel’s voice rang through the trees behind them, and the bushes at the clearing’s edge rustled.

“Speak of the devil. Hey Joel!”

“There you are, Gem! The sun’s about to go down, you ready to lose?”

She scoffed. “Hardly. Let me just- huh?”

She turned around to see that Pearl was gone, the only evidence of her ever being there an impression in the grass and a flicker of red in the trees. “Oh.” Fighting back her disappointment, she picked up her basket and turned back to Joel. “Prepare to be crushed!”

————

Gem came back to the same clearing again the next day. She wasn’t really sure why, it wasn’t like Pearl would be there again. But to her surprise, there she was. The two of them talked for hours about everything and nothing, and Gem found herself being drawn in by Pearl’s chatter and smile and her contagious laughter as she told stories of her friends and their time spent together in the village graveyard. Though Gem noticed that she always avoided the question of why they met there, or anything about her own past. Days turned into weeks turned into months as Gem slowly developed a crush on her friend. The two of them met in the same clearing every day to talk and spend time together until one fateful day a few months after their first meeting.

“Hiya Gem!” Pearl waved cheerily from her spot on the ground and flashed Gem a brilliant smile. She had her hands behind her back and appeared to be hiding something.

“Hi Pearl!” Gem sat down beside her. “Whatcha got there?”

Pearl pulled out a small box filled with neatly cut squares of something warm brown colored. “Caramel! I saw it in the village sweet shop and thought you’d like it.”

“Aw, thanks!” Gem took the box and opened it. A heavenly smell wafted through the air as Gem pulled out two pieces and passed one to Pearl.
“Thanks!” Pearl bit into the treat and grinned, eyes lighting up beneath her ever-present hood.

Gem bit into her own square, and was floored by the sweetness that filled her mouth. “It’s so good!”

“I know! Impulse got us all some a couple of years ago and it’s still the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Gem smirked at her and, in a moment of hubris, decided to try something. “I dunno… I’m pretty sure I’m looking at something sweeter right now.”

“Wh-what? Nooo.” Pearl leaned back with what was clearly an attempt at nonchalance, but it was ruined when her hand slipped out from under her and she almost fell over.

“Yeah!” Gem scooted a bit closer, spotting weakness. “The sweetest thing around!”

“S-stop it.” Pearl tugged a little on her hood and gave Gem a little smile that made her heart melt. She could feel herself going slightly pink herself at how easily she was able to fluster her friend.

“But it’s cute!”

Pearl let out an adorable high-pitched whine. “No it’s not!”

Gem giggled. “So cute!”

Pearl muttered something under her breath.

“What’s that?”

“I said you’re cuter.”

Gem froze up for a moment. She thinks I’m cute? A burst of warmth shot through her heart and across her face. However, she quickly recovered and narrowed her eyes playfully at her friend. “No, you are.”

“Nooo.”

“Yeah.” Gem scooted closer.

“Nuh uh.”

“Ye-” Gem was cut off by the feeling of warm lips pressing against her cheek before a scarlet-faced Pearl scrambled away towards the edge of the clearing, eyes wide in panic.“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry-”

“Pearl, wait!” But she was already gone. Gem sat there in shock for a moment, processing, then buried her face in her hands and screamed.

Chapter Text

Eight hours earlier…

“So remind me again why we’re robbing Impulse’s dad’s store?” Scott rubbed his eyes tiredly as the three of them trudged along the cobbled streets towards the sweet shop.

“I wanna get caramel for Gem!” Pearl wagged her tail in excitement. “It’s warm and sweet and the same color!”

“Jesus, you’re a simp.”

“You’re one to talk!”

“Guys, I will turn this trip around.”

“Sorry Impulse.”

“Sorry Impulse.”

The sheepdog hybrid sighed as he led the way up to the back door of the shop and produced a spare key from his pocket. “You two are lucky I love you.”

The three of them entered the dark store and Scott lit a candle and moved to stand guard, since he was the only one who couldn’t see in the dark. Impulse beckoned Pearl over to the selection of caramel. Pearl looked them over for a moment before quickly grabbing a box and bolting out the door and back towards the graveyard with her friends on her heels.

“So, how’d it go?” Cleo questioned as soon as the three of them had caught their breath.

Pearl triumphantly held up the box. “We did it!”

“Awesome! I guess all that’s left to do now is wait.”

When the time arrived, Pearl pulled up her hood to hide her ears and set off towards the meeting place with the box. She sat there for a few minutes before Gem entered the clearing. As always, she took Pearl's breath away. She smiled and waved, and Pearl fought down the lump in her throat enough to greet her in return.

Gem sat down in the grass next to her and tried to peer around her to get a look at the box. “Whatcha got there?”

Moment of truth. Pearl held out the box with a proud smile. “Caramel! I saw it in the sweet shop and thought you’d like it.” Okay, so that wasn’t entirely true, but it was close enough!

“Aw, thanks!” Gem took out two pieces and gave one to Pearl before biting into her own. Immediately her eyes lit up and a look of utter wonder crossed her face. “It’s so good!”

“I know! Impulse got us all some a couple years ago and it’s still the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Gem looked over at her, a smirk growing on her face. “I dunno… I’m pretty sure I’m looking at something sweeter right now.”

Pearl froze. Did Gem just… flirt with her? Her shock turned into alarm when she realized she could feel her tail wagging wildly under her cloak. “Wh-what? Nooo.” She leaned back so her hand was on top of her tail, pinning it to the ground.

“Yeah!” Gem scooted a bit closer, her smile growing. “The sweetest thing around!”

“S-stop it.” Pearl cursed the stutter in her voice as she tugged her hood further down over her face.

“But it’s cute!”

Pearl heard a flustered, high-pitched whine escape her throat and felt her face darken even more. She had to move so she was fully sitting on her tail so stop the delighted wagging. “No it’s not!”

Gem giggled. “So cute!”

“You’re cuter.” She muttered to herself with a little smile. The cervitaur looked so pleased with herself, it was completely adorable.

“What’s that?”

Shit. May as well commit to it now.

“I said you’re cuter.”

Gem went very still for a moment, but quickly her eyes narrowed playfully and she started scooting even closer. “No, you are.”

“Nooo.” She was so pretty, her eyes were glowing softly with mischief, and something else? Pearl didn’t dare to hope.

“Yeah.” Gem scooted closer, the endless green was peppered with flecks of gold.

“Nuh uh.” She was close enough for Pearl to see every freckle splashed across her cheeks and nose, and she felt her heart might explode out of her chest.

“Ye-” Warmth, just for a second. Then Pearl realized what she’d done, and her joy turned to horror.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!” What had she done? She scrambled away and ran off into the trees.

————

Cleo looked up as Pearl stumbled into the field in hybrid form and collapsed in a curled up sitting position in front of her grave.

“Pearl! How did it- oh.” The zombie came around and sat down beside her on the ground. “That bad?”

The werewolf nodded.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head.

“Do you want me to go get the guys?”

A nod.

“Ok. I’ll be back soon.”

Scott’s house was on the edge of town, so he was the easiest to get to. Cleo stood looking up at the second floor window where they could see the elf sitting at a desk doing… something. Cleo didn’t know what Scott did alone in his room, nor did they particularly care to. She grabbed a rock from the ground and chucked it at his window, repeating the action a few times until he came over and opened it to see what the noise was.

“Who the fu- ow!” Cleo’s next rock hit him squarely between the eyes and he glared down at the street looking for the source. “What was that for- Cleo? What are you doing here?”

“Scott! Get your ass down here and get Impulse, we have a code red!” After Scott’s first bad heartbreak a few years ago, the four of them had developed a color system to alert each other surreptitiously of when a member of the group had some sort of emergency. Blue for Scott, yellow for Impulse, green for Cleo, and red for Pearl. When a code was called for one member, the other three would drop everything and get to the graveyard as fast as possible to help.

Immediately, Scott nodded, all indignation gone. “On it.” He disappeared from the window and reappeared a few seconds later at Cleo’s side. “I’ll go get Impulse, you stay with Pearl and make sure she isn’t alone.”

Cleo nodded and tore off back towards the graveyard. Scott ran in the other direction towards the sweet shop. He burst through the door to see Impulse’s brother Ren working the counter. “Ren! Where’s Impulse? It’s important.”

Ren looked taken aback, ears flattening against his head at the sudden noise. “Wow. Alright, hold on, dude.” Ren threw his head back to shout into the back room. “Impulse! Scott’s here, and he looks freaked!”

Impulse came jogging out of the back room in his work clothes. “Hey Scott! What’s going on?”

“Code red.”

Impulse’s eyes widened. “Uh oh. I’m on it. Ren, cover me?”

Ren scowled. “I covered for you last time!” That had been a code green. The stitches in Cleo’s neck had worn out, and her head had completely detached from her body. Her head was the only part of her that couldn’t be replaced, and the zombie had been completely helpless until Pearl had found her hours later.

“Please! This is really important!”

“You said that last time.”

“If you cover me now, I’ll cover you next time you want to go see Martyn.”

Ren sighed. “Fine. But I’m not helping if Dad gets on you.”

“Thanks Ren! You’re a lifesaver!” Impulse gave his brother a quick hug and ran to join Scott around the counter.

“You owe me!” Ren called after them as they left.

The two of them made it to the graveyard, and immediately Impulse threw his arms around Pearl’s neck in a tight hug, Scott quickly followed suit and Cleo joined soon after, completing the G’s crisis hug. Impulse could feel his friend grab fistfulls of his shirt and bury her face in his shoulder with a whimper. He hugged her tighter in response, waving his tail slowly back and forth and making a soft rumbling noise in the back of his throat. All is well, you are safe.

After a few minutes, the group loosened their grip slightly and Scott held one of Pearl's hands as she sat with her head on Impulse’s chest. “What happened, Pearl?”

“Do you need us to have words?” Impulse growled. Cleo nodded in grim agreement from where she sat holding Pearl’s other hand. If this girl had hurt their best friend they swore-

“No! No no no. It wasn’t Gem’s fault, it was all mine. I’m just so stupid! I ruined it!”

The other two turned to Scott, the member with objectively the most relationship experience. He squeezed the werewolf’s hand gently. “What happened, Pearl?”

The whole story came tumbling out, and Scott nodded along quietly until she finished.

“In my professional opinion, I judge your relationship… Not ruined.”

“What?”

“Pearl, I won’t pretend like that was smart, but I did way stupider things while I was trying to date Jimmy and Tango, and look where we are now! Your chances aren’t shot, you just need to talk to her.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Absolutely.”

“But what if she hates me?”

“Then you’ll still have us. We aren’t going anywhere.” Impulse promised.

“Yep. You’re stuck with us now, whether you like it or not.” Cleo grinned, giving Pearl’s hand a squeeze.

The werewolf choked out a wet laugh, smiling despite herself. “Thanks, guys.”

Chapter Text

The box of caramel was empty, and Gem was not wallowing.

“Yes you are.” Joel repeated for the fourth time that day. “You came home with a box of that weird sugary stuff that looks like it’s from the village, face planted into your bed, and refused to move. That’s kind of the definition of wallowing.”

“Shut up, Joel.”

“You know, I seem to remember saying that a couple of years ago when I was in your position, and from what I recall, you didn’t.”

Gem just groaned into her pillow, unable to dispute that.

Joel sat down on the floor beside her bed, propping his elbows up next to her head. “Look, you don’t have to tell me what’s going on if you don’t want to, but at least get out of bed for a bit, if for no other reason than to throw out that blummin’ box. I’m honestly surprised Mum and Dad haven’t found it yet, the smell’s been driving me crazy.”

Gem sighed, he had a point. “Fine.”

Joel’s eyes widened. “Wait, really?” He muttered under his breath, “Wow, that was easy.” Returning his voice to normal volume, he called after his sister as she left the room. “Grab some sweet berries while you’re out?”

Gem flicked his forehead as she leaned on the doorframe, still getting used to standing again after three days of almost no moving. “Don’t push it.”

The moon was out by the time Gem was on her way back. Pearl was almost certainly in bed by now, no use in looking for her until tomorrow. It was beautiful out here, though. The moon was full tonight, fractured patches of its light shining down through the trees. Crickets chirped, fireflies blinked softly. The clear, damp smell of the small forest plants filled her nose alongside-

Gem froze, another scent mingled into the smells of the night. A warm, earthy smell that made Gem think of the stories of blood and fear she’d been told as a child. Wolf scent.

A rustling in the bushes behind her caused her to whirl around. A tall, hairy shadow wearing a fur lined cloak stepped out into the open, nose to the sky, sniffing, smelling her out. It caught sight of her, and Gem could see its eyes glowing in the darkness, one blue and one red.

“What are you?” Gem whispered. She could hear her voice shaking as she backed away from the monster. The werewolf tilted its head, looking almost… confused. It hadn’t moved from its spot.

“Why do you look like Pearl?” This didn’t make sense, Pearl was a human! This monster was trying to mess with her mind, get her to lower her guard so it could strike. Well, it wasn’t going to happen. Gem stamped her hooves and shook her antlers at the monster, making it clear she would defend herself. “Stay back!”

The monster took a step back, a pitiful whine escaping from its throat. Gem felt her treacherous heart ache at the sound, the monster reminding her once again of Pearl.

The wolf and the deer stared at each other for a long moment, one tense and aggressive, the other lost and confused. Gem stared into the monster's eyes, and for the first time, really thought about some of the strange behavior Pearl exhibited. She never took off her hood, she made a lot of inhuman noises, including whining very similarly to the way the monster in front of Gem was now when she was upset. She seemed to react to scents a human shouldn’t have been able to pick up on, hell, she’d once stared at a stick Gem had been waving around in her hand while talking for a good five minutes without blinking. And, of course, the creature currently giving Gem the saddest eyes the cervitaur had ever seen on a bloodthirsty monster looked uncannily like her.

“Pearl?”

The werewolf’s eyes brightened in recognition, taking a hesitant step forward.

“Damn it.”

Pearl was a werewolf. She’d been a werewolf this entire time and hadn’t told Gem about it. Gem, who had been hearing horror stories about werewolves for her entire life.

And yet, the only thing she could think was that god, she was so pathetic, it was adorable.

Gem realized suddenly that Pearl was now several steps closer to her, looming over her now in her much larger monster form. Barely six inches away but not moving. One of her hands was raised, reaching out as though waiting for Gem to initiate contact.

“Why haven’t you tried to rip my throat out already?”

Pearl just stared at her, unmoving. The hand didn’t lower.

“I’m gonna regret this. Screw it.” She took the offered hand, trying to ignore the warm, fluttery feeling in her chest as Pearl’s wolfish face lit up. The werewolf’s other arm snaked around Gem’s waist where her human half met her deer half, head resting between her antlers with a contented huff.

Gem now had her face buried in her friend’s shoulder. The earthy smell of wolf filling her nose, but not quite masking an underlying tone that was undeniably Pearl. The cervitaur felt herself smiling, and mentally kicked herself for relaxing so quickly. This may have been her friend, but it was still a monster! Plus, Pearl had lied to her. She should be furious, she had every right to be! But try as she might, she couldn’t muster up any real anger. She understood the situation Pearl had been in. It wasn’t personal, and it was for her own safety. People hated werewolves, and if anyone who knew about Pearl said one wrong word it could get her killed. Even if Gem was hurt Pearl hadn’t trusted her enough to tell her, she couldn’t exactly blame her for it.

“Why do you have to be so hard to be mad at?”

Pearl didn’t respond, instead pulling back a bit from their awkward embrace to tug Gem insistently along by the hand further into the woods.

Gem dug in her feet briefly. “Hold on, where are you taking me?”

Pearl tilted her head and tugged again, silently begging Gem to follow with the most adorable look she’d possibly ever seen. Almost immediately Gem caved.

“God, I need to say no to you more.” Gem allowed herself to be led through the trees to a small cave surrounded by strong-smelling herbs and strange flowers, one of which appeared to have a large orange eye in its center which stared at her as they entered. One end of the room was filled with shelves of odd plants and little trinkets from the village, and the other was taken up by a large nest of blankets and assorted soft objects, some of which Gem recognized as things she’d gifted to Pearl in the past, and others that must have been from her village friends. The werewolf made a beeline for the nest, curling up like a croissant and looking expectantly up at Gem.
The cervitaur hesitated at this. This was a transparently terrible idea, she was going to be ripped to shreds. Cuddling up with a werewolf? She’d have to be the stupidest person to ever live! Then again, Pearl hadn’t killed her yet. In her most primitive, wild state her first instinct had been to be close to Gem. And now she was staring up from the nest with that pitiful expression that Gem just couldn’t say no to.

“Please don’t kill me in my sleep for this.” Gem stepped delicately into the nest and laid down, building up a small stack of pillows for her human half to rest on. Immediately she felt Pearl curl into her side, soft breaths evening out into sleep against her stomach. She curled one of her front deer legs around Pearl's waist, and let herself drop off as well.

————

Pearl slowly opened her eyes, squinting against the familiar headache pounding in her skull. She vaguely recognized her cave, which suggested she’d endured her shift alone, but that didn’t match the feeling of warmth and safety she remembered or the feeling of… possessiveness? That didn’t make any sense, what had happened last night? Pearl sat up, shifting back into hybrid form with a wide yawn, stretching her arms toward the low ceiling before going to put back the pillow she’d been using near the other things that smelled like Gem.

Then the pillow moved.

“Mmmh, where am I?” Gem opened her eyes blearily, hand coming up to scratch absently at her antlers, her hair a mess, and overall looking absolutely adorable and beautiful and very much in Pearl’s nest.

“Oh no.”

Gem was here. Gem had seen her during her shift. Gem knew she was a werewolf. But why was she here?
“What happened?” Gem muttered, before seemingly finally realizing where she was, eyes snapping open as she sat bolt upright, pointing an accusing finger at Pearl.

“Gem, I can explain-”

“You’re a werewolf!”

Pearl grabbed her arm desperately. “Please, before you leave let me explain!”

Gem deflated, all the fight going out of her in an instant. “No, it’s fine. I get why you didn’t tell me.”

“I wanted to, really I did.”

“It was for your own safety.”

“Not just mine. I have monster friends too, and they might be tracked down with me.”

“Other werewolves?”

“No, that’s just me I think.”

“Is that why you never told me why you and your friends meet in the graveyard?”

“That was partially me and partially one of my friends. Before you ask, I won’t tell you about anyone except for me. That’s not my secret to tell.”

“Alright.” Gem looked disappointed, but accepted Pearl’s decision with grace. “Then… would you mind telling me about you?”

Pearl hesitated, she was still scared that this might be some sort of trap, but then again Gem was here, wasn’t she? And she seemed genuinely interested in learning more about Pearl in a way that made the werewolf feel warm inside.

“…Alright. I was abandoned as a toddler, so I don’t know if I was born a werewolf or if I was bitten. In the end, I s’pose it doesn’t matter. Fortunately for me, I was found by a pack of wolves who took me in until I was five. After that, since my lifespan is so much longer than theirs, they had a new generation of leadership that didn’t really like me still hanging around. So I left and found my own den to live in by myself.” Pearl gestured around them at the cave. “It took until I was ten to approach people for real. I’d been watching for a while, learning their speech, even picked up a bit on my own, but I’d never actually talked to one. One day, I saw a group of kids in the graveyard and went to see what they were up to, but they saw me before I could get away. Cleo nearly killed me, actually.” Pearl chuckled fondly at the memory, Gem looked alarmed.

“When you were ten?”

“Hey, we were all hiding in the graveyard for a reason. Couldn’t have anyone blabbing. Anyway, we ended up becoming friends instead. They figured out I was a werewolf pretty much immediately, and they were the first real people I went through a shift around.”
“Wait, I was meaning to ask how those work! You don’t attack people?”

“No, apparently what happens is that higher brain function shuts down and I’m just stuck in wolf brain for the night. Plus, I don’t remember anything that happened the next morning.”

“Wait, that’s just you with no higher brain function or filter? And you don’t remember anything afterwards?” A strange look came over Gem’s face.

“Yeah…” A horrifying realization struck as Pearl realized what that look meant. “Gem, what did I do?” She was terrified she already knew the answer.

“I don’t know, you were just really clingy and kinda pathetic! And really insistent on coming back here for some reason.”
Pearl buried her face in her hands and groaned. She’d long since come to terms with her crush on Gem, and apparently her monster brain translated that into mating behavior. She was so screwed.

“What? What does that mean?”

“Please, please don’t read into anything I do as a wolf.”

“Well now I can’t help it!”

“Wolf brain doesn’t have any filter so it makes me do weird things sometimes!”

“You just act on your first instinct?”

“Kinda? Yeah?”

“Oh.” Gem stared at her for a long moment, face bright red.

“Well, I have to get going!” Pearl hastily scrambled to her feet before sprinting out of the cave and away into the woods, leaving Gem alone once again.

————

Gem learned quite a few things about her best friend today. She was still trying to process the fact that Pearl’s first instinct with absolutely no filter was to be close to her, and why that idea made her feel warm and fluttery inside. She took another look around the cave, the scents of the nest mingling together. Pearl's scent was the strongest of course, but her own scent was surprisingly strong as well, concentrated in a pile along one side. The other side was lined with four different piles that must have been from Pearl’s village friends, though she’d said there were only three. On the other side of the room there was a little stream of water, a hook on the wall where Gem guessed Pearl’s cloak would hang when she wasn’t using it, and a row of wooden cubbies filled with baskets of dried fruit and salted meat, with a small collection of wooden figurines on the top shelf, including a fist-sized snail carved from some kind of orange wood Gem didn’t recognize that smelled of something far older than this forest or anything in it, and a beautifully rendered carving of Gem herself, sitting down with one hand held to her face as if laughing at something. She picked up the figurine and held it in her hands. It was smooth and slightly waxy to the touch, the cool wood refreshing and the weight comforting against her palms.

It occurred to Gem suddenly that she was wandering around her friend’s home while said friend wasn’t here, and that she probably shouldn’t be messing with Pearl’s things while she wasn’t around. She hurriedly put the figurine down again and hurried outside to find Joel.

It didn’t take long to find him, combing the forest with a look of panic and determination on his face. Immediately upon catching sight of Gem it melted into relief.

“Gem! Where the blumming hell have you been?” He hugged her tightly, then froze, sniffing the air. “Why do you smell like wolf? Are you okay? What happened?”

“Joel! Chill out, I’m fine.” Gem took her brother firmly by the shoulders to snap him out of his worrying. “I smell like wolf because… well, it’s a long story. The point is, I’m okay, and I found Pearl.”

“You found her? In the middle of the night? On a full moon? And come back smelling like wolf?”

“…Yes?”

Joel sighed heavily. “Come on, I’ve got a patch of garlic I use to mask Lizzie and her brothers’ scents from Mom and Dad, it should work for this too.”

“Wait, you’re helping me?”

“Well, yeah. You didn’t snitch about Lizzie until I was ready, why would I snitch on you about Pearl?”

“Well first of all, it’s not like that- put that down!” Gem swatted at Joel as he raised one eyebrow incredulously. “And second, because Lizzie is just a village girl, Pearl is a literal werewolf!”

“So? You aren’t dead yet. I trust your judgment, if you think she’s safe then I’ll take your word for it. Doesn’t matter whether or not I like it, it’s your life.”

Gem felt her throat tighten up, a giddy smile stretching across her face. “Thank you.”

“Of course, you’d do the same for me.”

“Always.”

Chapter Text

By the time Pearl reached the graveyard, she was teetering dangerously on the line between giddiness and panic. She easily vaulted the low stone wall marking where the graveyard met the surrounding forest and skidded to a halt in front of Cleo’ grave.

Scott and Impulse were already there, Scott stitching up a hard to reach cut across Cleo’s left shoulder blade, and Impulse reading aloud from an adventure book to keep them all entertained. They all looked up as she approached, and Impulse shut the book. “Pearl! We didn’t see you last night, where were you?”

“…Some mistakes were made.”

“Uh oh, what happened?” Cleo asked. Scott nodded for Pearl to speak as he carefully stuck another pin into the zombie’s shoulder.

“So, I may have misjudged when I was going to shift last night and I didn’t get all the way here, and next thing I know I’m waking up in my den and…” Pearl’s face reddened and she shuffled her feet, tail wagging furiously. “Gem was there too.”

“Woo! Go Pearl!” Impulse cheered. “Does that mean she knows you’re a werewolf?”

“Yeah, and she didn’t even seem that upset about it! She asked me about myself, and what shifting is like… and she told me that wolf brain made me do some weird things.”

“Congrats and all, Pearl, but isn’t your wolf brain always weird?” Cleo pointed out.

“No, like, extra weird things. I got embarrassed and ran off, and I came here to get your advice.” The red on Pearl’s face deepened as her tail wagged faster. “Now that she knows… I wanna ask her out.”

“Go for it!” Impulse cheered. Cleo nodded and gave her a thumbs up, and Scott at last reappeared, having finally finished stitching Cleo’s shoulder.

“You’ve absolutely got this.” The elf leaned back against a gravestone, head tilted in thought. “You meet in the same place every time, right? Do it there. Don’t bother with any sort of grand show or anything, just tell her how you feel, plain and simple, and it’ll all work out fine.”

“What if she doesn’t like me that way? What if she never wants to see me again?”

“Then you’ll still have us.” Cleo reminded her. “Remember what we said? We’re not going anywhere.”

“We believe in you! You got this!” Impulse gave her a bright smile and two thumbs up. Pearl smiled bigger than she’d thought was possible.

“Thanks, guys.”

With a deep breath, Pearl squared her shoulders and set off for the clearing.

————

“Joel! What do I do?” Gem paced back and forth in her brother’s room, wringing her hands as she tried to dissipate the nervous energy filling her body.

“Well first, stop shouting in my ear.” Joel leaned away, reshuffling his deer half to be sat closer to the wall. “And stop pacing so much. There’s vines in here, you’re gonna get your antlers stuck.”

“Joel! I am freaking out right now, what do I do?” Gem buried her face in her hands. “How did being a werewolf make her hotter?”

“Look, I say you just go for it. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“She thinks I’m weird and gross and doesn’t wanna hang out anymore?”

“Well if that happens then she wasn’t a very good friend in the first place, was she? Besides, you spent the night with her when she was a wolf and she didn’t rip you to shreds, so I’d say that’s a pretty good sign.”

Joel had a point. Gem didn’t know much about wolf behavior, but she did know quite a bit about Pearl behavior, and Pearl was incredibly affectionate towards her in a way that didn’t exactly read as platonic. “You’re right, I’m just gonna go for it. I’m gonna say it, and it’s gonna be completely fine, and I’ll be fine!”

“That’s the spirit… I think?” Joel gave her a thumbs up as she ran off to find Pearl.

————

Gem was waiting for her, just like always. She was muttering something to herself as she wove a crown from the surrounding flowers and grass. Pearl felt like her heart might explode out of her chest staring at the cervitaur sitting in the middle of the clearing, as she watched from behind a large trunk on the edge of the trees. She stood still for a moment, taking in the sight, before stepping forward and making herself known. “Hey, Gem.”

Gem’s gaze snapped to hers, eyes wide, face weirdly red as she hid the half finished flower crown behind her back. “Pearl! Hi!”

They stood in awkward silence for a moment before each taking a deep breath and at the same time blurting out, “I have something to tell you!”

“You go first.” Gem insisted. Pearl took a deep breath, here goes nothing.

“Gem… I really like you, like a lot. I have for a while now, and I understand if that’s weird or if you don’t want to hang out anymore but-”

Even as her feet instinctively moved to run, Gem was there. Gently cupping her face in both hands and staring at her with green eyes so full of love and ferocity Pearl thought she might have died and gone to heaven. “I see that! Don’t run!” Her face softened, and she gave Pearl a big goofy smile. “I like you too, you doofus.” She pulled Pearl’s head down to press a kiss to her forehead. Immediately, her expression momentarily flickered with concern. “Sorry, was that okay?”

Pearl, meanwhile, was unable to respond except for a high-pitched whine, burying her face in Gem’s shoulder, tail wagging furiously.
Gem laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.” She pulled back enough to guide Pearl to sit back down on the grass with her, continuing work on the flower crown while Pearl rested against her chest. When the two stood, Pearl was slightly taller than Gem was, but due to the way Gem’s human half connected to her deer half, Pearl only came up to her shoulder when they were sitting down.

“So… what are we?” Pearl asked after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

“Girlfriends?” Gem suggested. “I mean, only if you want, of course.”

“I-I think I’d like that, yeah.” Pearl smiled up at her, and Gem felt her heart melt. She leaned down to press a quick kiss into her girlfriend’s hair, then dropped the now finished flower crown on her head.

“Me too.”