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Renting apartments in this economy was, unfortunately, very very expensive. Which led to problem number one: Emf and Seawatt needed a roommate.
Problem number two couldn't be helped. It was quite simply ill advised for supernatural creatures (those being Seawatt himself, a werewolf, and Emf, more importantly, being a vampire) to share homes with humans. It never ended well, and made the secret damn near impossible to hide.
In hindsight, Seawatt probably shouldn't have trusted the 'guy who knows a guy' that his friend, Ally, had said they'd talk to.
He laments this fact as he watches the hyperactive blond man they'd agreed to take on as a roommate stumble into the small living room with a stack of three boxes.
Seawatt grimaces as one nearly falls, Emf rushes over and stops it, smoothly taking it off the other and with that obstacle out of the way they can both see the bright, lopsided grin he's sporting.
"Thanks!" He says, as he places the remaining two down on the floor and dusts off his hands. "I've got a few more down in the car but, uh, first introductions. I'm Evbo!"
He reaches out a hand for both of them to shake, Emf does, introducing themselves politely. Seawatt blinks, neglects to shake it.
"Hey." He says with a small wave. "I'm Seawatt."
"Nice to meet you both." Evbo replies. "Uh, could I nab one of you to help me carry some of the last boxes up? These flights of stairs are brutal."
Emf flashes Seawatt a look that was very much obviously meant to communicate 'I shouldn't go outside right now because of the sun, but you better help or so help me I'll give you an earful later.'
Seawatt sighs, rolls his eyes and nods his assent.
"Okay, but you'll owe me."
"Deal!" Evbo nods and practically skips out the door into the hallway. Seawatt follows with a subtle glare directed at Emf.
"Hey, so, do you guys have a dog?" Evbo asks Seawatt as he divides the remaining four boxes between the both of them. "Because I could feel my nose itching like I was gonna sneeze any second while I was in there. I'm a little allergic is all.”
Seawatt pauses, fixes Evbo with an unsure stare, frowning.
"Uh, no?" He says, picking up two of the boxes. “No dogs.”
"Huh, weird." Evbo mumbles.
Seawatt flops down onto the couch next to Emf when he finishes helping Evbo.
The man in question was in his room, sorting his belongings.
Emf puts down the book they're reading and looks at Seawatt.
“Well?”
“Well, what?” Seawatt questions.
Emf rolls their eyes.
“I know you, Seawatt, you have some complaint or opinion or something . Just spit it out.”
“Ugh, fine.” Seawatt says, as if it’s so terrible despite being glad to get it off his chest. “He's not even mentioned the whole… supernatural creatures thing. And he's a bit loud and excitable but that's more of a me thing.”
Emf hums.
“Well, not everyone likes to divulge it straight away. And it's not exactly good manners to ask - so you're going to have to live without knowing till Evbo decides to talk about it, sorry to say.” They eventually respond.
“You're not sorry to say.” Seawatt grumbles.
“You're right, I'm not.” Emf laughs a little.
Seawatt being unable to ask did not stop him from analysing Evbo's every move to try and figure out what he was.
He'd already ruled out werewolf like himself, he would have known from the get go if that were the case.
Evbo's propensity towards the sun, distinctly very alive appearance and eating habits ruled out vampire, too.
Seawatt ran through the list of possibilities in his head.
A mermaid? It'd definitely be weird to see one in the city, especially given how landlocked they are - but it's not unheard of.
An Incubus? Seawatt thinks about it for a second more. He's having trouble reconciling Evbo with this idea, and tentatively crosses it off for now.
Some kind of faerie or shapeshifter was always an option, but he kind of doubted it.
He groans and finds himself back at square one. He'd just have to consider all of them.
One month on, Seawatt still had no clue on what exactly Evbo is. He seemed… pretty average, from what time he had spent with the guy. If he didn’t know better, he would think that Evbo is human.
He’d even expressed as such to Emf, who had then insisted that no one would be stupid enough to direct a human to live with them. Seawatt had his… opinions about that, but couldn’t complain as Emf was now helping him try to figure out the mystery.
Seawatt shows the notes to Emf, their eyes skim the page and they grimace.
“This is.. Kind of stalkerish?” They say.
Seawatt groans and sighs.
“It’s not nearly as bad as you’re making out, I just observe his behaviour when we are literally hanging out together. It’s not like I follow him without him knowing!” He protests.
“You have a point but it’s still a bit weird how dedicated to it you are.” Emf rolls their eyes.
“Are you willing to help, or not?” Seawatt snaps.
They eventually solidly rule out werewolf and vampire (again - Emf insisted on double checking), and decide a mermaid is equally unlikely.
Seawatt groans and checks the calendar - seeing the familiar indicator that informs him there is a full moon soon. Great. Just what he needs.
Evbo looks up from his phone and sees Seawatt glaring at the calendar like it had personally offended him, and looks away quickly, pretending there weren't cogs turning in his head.
Seawatt is oblivious to any such plans Evbo seems to have until the next day, when Evbo pokes his head into Seawatt’s room. Seawatt looks up, huffing as his attempt at rest was interrupted.
“What?” He bites out, not having the patience to keep up any pretence of manners.
“Uh, hey?” Evbo smiles awkwardly and fidgets in the doorway, clearly hiding something behind his back.
“God, what do you want ? Just hurry it up already.”
“Sorry- sorry.” Evbo mutters and takes what he was hiding, a plastic bag, and thrusts it in Seawatt’s direction.
Seawatt looks at it, dumbfounded and takes it with some pushing from Evbo. He looks inside to see dark chocolate, a… heating pad, and various other snacks.
Seawatt looks back up at Evbo, who seems an odd mix of nervous and proud.
“There’s also some ice cream, your favourite flavour, in the freezer but I didn’t, uh, bring it in case you didn’t want it right now. I can go grab it though-” Evbo says.
“No. Uh. Nah. It’s fine.” Seawatt replies and frowns down at the bag. Evbo’s face sinks a little at that expression. “I mean, thank you? But just, why?”
“Well, you’re, yknow. Due. So…” Evbo trails off awkwardly and Seawatt blinks at him.
“Due?” He raises an eyebrow, it is nearly the full moon but none of this would help with that and he didn’t expect this from Evbo considering how he hadn’t once mentioned anything of this nature previously.
“Yeah, you’re, uh.” Evbo gestures at his lower half. “You’re gonna start bleeding soon, right?”
Seawatt stares. He processes. Evbo thought he was starting his period ? He resists the urge to sigh loudly and makes a non committal sound.
“Sure, thanks, Evbo. I’m going back to trying to nap now.”
Evbo grins and nods.
“Mhm. Let me know if you need anything.” He replies, and leaves.
Seawatt sighs and curls up on his side again. Later him can worry about that.
Later Seawatt was not pleased.
Seawatt jumps out of his skin when Evbo shows up behind him, completely out of nowhere.
“Hey, Seawatt!”
Seawatt whirls around, glancing to the sky seeing the sun slowly move downwards and to Evbo in the middle of the semi secluded location he usually waited this out in.
“What the hell are you doing here?” He hisses.
“Well I was gonna go on a late night walk then I saw you and I dunno, just wanted to say hey. I would’ve thought you’d still be staying inside but I guess they say exercise can help….” Evbo trails off thoughtfully.
Seawatt ignores how that doesn’t really explain why the other was in the middle of the woods near to the small town they stayed in.
“Whatever, Evbo, you gotta go home.” He says.
“Yeah, you’re right, it’s late, we should go back together.”
“No, I’m staying here, you should just- go back alone.” Seawatt snaps, hoping he gets the point.
“Oh, are you gonna walk a bit longer? I'll stay too then.” Evbo offers.
Seawatt would appreciate the infuriating niceness even a little any other time but he looks at the steadily setting sun and nearly strangles the man.
“ Evbo. ” He says in a warning tone. “Go home.”
“Whatever.” Evbo replies and pouts. “Your loss.”
Seawatt just lets out a relieved sigh as the other trudges off.
Evbo eventually makes it to the treeline, and waits there in the darkening area, expecting Seawatt to have changed his mind any time now. When that doesn’t happen, he gets a little worried and turns to go back into the (very dark, oh my god,) forest, turning on his phone torch. What is he doing? This is how people die in horror movies, Evbo. That train of thought dissuaded him from calling Seawatt’s name.
He steps a little further forwards and a stick cracks beneath his foot. He thinks he sees something in the dark and aims the light at it.
He absolutely does not let out a girlish shriek when he sees an entire fucking wolf standing there that immediately runs at him.
He trips, and scrambles backwards as the black wolf continues running, it pounces on top of him and he lets out a shaky breath. Shit, shit, shit, fuck. Yeah he’s dying, it’s happening, he screws his eyes shut.
A few moments later, he can still feel the wolf on him but he is distinctly not dead so he cracks his eyes open and sees it. It’s standing still, staring at him with, somehow, very annoyed looking purple eyes. Can wolves even have purple eyes?
“What the fuck.” Evbo mutters. He tries to move away. The wolf lets him, for some reason.
He turns, and runs.
When Evbo has somehow run all the way home, he has two thoughts: Seawatt is still out there and the sudden need to tell Emf.
He bursts into Emf’s room and word vomits and Emf pauses.
“Hey, dude, whoa, slow down. Start again.”
Evbo takes a breath in.
“So I went into the forest because I was on a walk and Seawatt was going there too and I said hi and he told me I had to leave so I pretended to, cause I thought he’d change his mind, yknow? And he didn’t so I went to check on him and there was this massive black wolf and it jumped at me but let me go and I’ve just realised I’ve left Seawatt in the forest with the wolf and oh god what if it’s killed him?”
“Okay that was… more understandable.” Emf says slowly and looks like they’re holding in a laugh. “Seawatt’ll be fine, Evbo.”
Evbo frowns.
“You don't know that.” He protests.
Emf pauses and their brows furrow.
“Evbo, Seawatt is- Seawatt’s the wolf. You. You know that, right? Like. Seawatt will be fine because the wolf is Seawatt.”
Evbo stares at them like they’re insane.
“What?”
Emf repeats themselves.
“You’re kidding, right? This is all an elaborate joke right?” Evbo looks at Emf and his jaw drops. “You’re not.”
Emf nods and squints at Evbo.
“I thought you knew?” They say.
“Why would I know that ?” Evbo questions, gesturing frantically.
“Because you’re….” Emf trails off and pauses, a bit of dread showing on their face suddenly. “Evbo. Are you human?”
“Uh. Duh?” He says and Emf groans loudly, buries their face in their hands and mutters something.
The following day, Evbo sits on the couch in the living room - feeling a bit like a scolded child. Seawatt squints at him from where he’s standing, looking tired but otherwise fine.
“So. You’ve been human this whole time?” He says.
Evbo nods nervously.
Seawatt throws his hands up in the air.
“I am never trusting Ally again.” He looks to Emf who was sitting in the room also - though they seemed significantly less annoyed. “Why did we even think that was a good idea?”
Emf shrugs.
“Why aren’t you even bothered about this?” Seawatt says in a borderline shrill voice.
“Too late now.” They reply. “Besides, Evbo seems fine with it, right?”
Evbo feels both pairs of eyes settle on him and he flounders before answering.
“Uh. Yeah. I am-” He says. “More or less…”
“See?”
“You’re normally the reasonable one, why am I stuck doing that this time?” Seawatt groans, burying his face in his palms.
“I’m the reasonable one when you’re doing something purposefully stupid, this was an accident and can’t exactly be fixed now, so it is what it is.” Emf responds, and goes back to what they were doing.
There was silence for a few seconds.
“So, if you’re a werewolf does this mean I can give you headpats and you’ll like it?” Evbo eventually asks, breaking the tense atmosphere.
“Try it and I’ll bite your hand off.” Seawatt responds, glaring.
Evbo looks disappointed and pouts.
“He actually does like them a lot, you’ll have to try next month.” Emf chimes in, and Seawatt turns to glare.
“ Traitor .”
Emf just shrugs, Evbo brightens and Seawatt. Seawatt just sighs loudly a final time.
“I hate both of you. So much.”