Chapter Text
A couple of months have passed since the incident at starlight. Aphmau and Travis were still not allowed to come back and the others tip toed around what happened. None of them truly told their friends that weren’t there what they experienced at starlight. And Dante and Laurence didn’t ask questions, no matter how badly they wanted to know. It was clear something happened. But they didn’t want to push them.
They started having weekly meetings where they talk about how the others were doing that week. They didn’t want to invade their friends privacy, but also had the natural instinct to talk about it. Their main concern however was using those meetings to make sure their friends weren’t getting worse.
A couple of months later, Laurence and Dante had talked, nothing new had happened this week, which was a good thing. They both returned home to find their roommates on the couch staring at them. Garroth and Travis never questioned were they’re roommate was going each week, Travis had only been back for a couple of weeks so there wasn’t really much to question about it until they brought it up to each other and realized they were both leaving at the same time the same day of the week.
“So,” Travis said.
“So what?”
“So are you and Laurence…dating?”
“WHAT?!”
“Me and Garroth found out you to go out together each week, assuming for secret dates.”
“No, oh my Irene, no I’m not dating Laurence!”
There was doubt in Travis’ face.
“Look, I’m not opposed to dating guys but I’m not dating Laurence, in fact he’s not single, but regardless, that’s not why we meet up every week.”
“Then why do you?”
“We like to talk to each other about …what we notice each week with all of you… just trying to keep track and make sure you guys aren’t getting worse you know?”
“Oh…” Travis didn’t know how to feel. He liked hearing that, it shows they care about them. But he also didn’t like that it meant they were looking into and talking about every little thing they did.
Meanwhile, at Garroth, Laurence, and Zane’s house, Garroth sat on the couch and stared at Laurence when he came home. But instead of asking him about it, he just wraps his arms around Laurence and kisses him. Travis’ first thought was that Dante and Laurence were dating, and for obvious reasons Garroth knew that wasn’t true but he couldn’t tell Laurence that.
There were a few things Laurence had knew and had been promised not to tell Dante, 1. Garroth had been turned into a werewolf by the ultima 2. The ultima is Aaron 3. Aaron is still the friend you knew, he won’t hurt you. And sometimes a detail would slip out while they were talking and Laurence promised not to tell Dante.
Garroth let out his werewolf ears and tail whenever he was around Laurence, and Aaron and Aphmau, but there was comfort in showing who he know was in front of the person he loves the most. Especially when this new thing about he allowed him to finally accept he was gay. Being a werewolf made him less perfect in his father’s eyes, and that allowed Garroth to realize that isn’t the only thing that makes him less perfect to his father. So he slowly dropped every little thing he made himself just to please his father.
Nana was staying the night with Zane. They had started swapping back and forth between which house they’d sleep in together, but whichever house it ended up being each night, they always slept together.
This night Nana was in Zane’s room, they had both fallen asleep (for the most part). At some point in the night, Nana was awoken by Zane bolting straight up.
“Zane…?”
“I’m ok nana.”
“But Zane…” Nana lets out a breath and readjusts herself “I just want to be here for you.”
“I know…I know,” There was a moment of silence before Zane continued, “it’s just that I’ve been through so much these past 2 years, everyday is a nightmare about a different thing that happened…”
Zane paused again, “though I haven’t had this one in a while…”
“Was it something that happened at starlight?”
“No, this happened at the lodge.”
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
Zane became noticeably uncomfortable.
“You don’t have to if you’re not comfortable.”
“No, I want to. The only people who know are those who were at the lodge and they didn’t react well to it.”
Zane takes a moment to prepare himself.
“When I was at the lodge…”
“Take your time.”
Zane lets out a breath before continuing, “when I was at the lodge…Kim, well as you know has a ghost possessing her…and ghost tried kissing me and then later on actually forced me to kiss her…”
“Oh my Irene! Zane, I’m sorry that happened to you,” Nana paused, “wait you said no one reacted well to this?”
“None of them believed me. We didn’t know it wasn’t Kim at the time and they all agreed she was too “shy” to do it. Worse, Garroth laughed when I told him…”
“Oh Zane…”
“Don’t let this change your view on them…”
Nana didn’t say anything, but she isn’t sure if she can look at her friends the same way now.