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[conning]

"It's Caffrey. Remember the value of plausible deniability. I'll get back to you."

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[abrightboy]

Malcolm will take the hug, holding on tight.

“It’s not really hitting my stomach like it normally would. It’s more like I… remember it, but with my mouth.”

[conning]

Neal uses the excuse of comfort to keep an arm around Malcolm’s shoulders.

“Maybe lycanthropy will be good for your stomach. That would be nice.”

Still. He gives Malcolm an extra squeeze. “You don’t have to do that again, you know that, right? Wolf or not, pack or not, you can run with them and not make yourself kill.”

[abrightboy]

“Yeah, I… maybe won’t so much. I don’t know if it’s expected to be… regular. But I think it only helps when I have a wolf stomach,” Malcolm admits.

[conning]

“It doesn’t matter if it’s expected,” Neal insists softly. “If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to do it. If Lark really respects and cares about you, he’ll respect and care about that too.”

[abrightboy]

“That’s true. I just… didn’t want to be a crappy wolf on the first day,” Malcolm replies.

[conning]

“I’m not blaming you.” Neal ruffles his hair and kisses the side of his head before finally letting go. “I wish he’d thought to ask what you wanted to do to test out having four legs.”

[abrightboy]

He smiles at Neal as he pulls away and picks up a slice of apple, holding it out to him in offer.

“Will said I can run with his dogs in the Enclosure. No killing animals. No animals to kill. Just running.”

[conning]

Neal takes the apple, pleased that his smile doesn’t dip at all when Malcolm mentions Will. It helps that he also mentions Will’s dogs, and the image of Malcolm playing with them as a wolf is unspeakably cute.

He shouldn’t be hurt that Malcolm told Will first. He has no right or reason to be hurt. Of course Malcolm told Will first. It’s fine.

One of the unintentional results of all of this, Neal doesn’t realize, is how much better of a liar he’s getting to be in a very short span of time.

“I hope I get to see your… wolf, at some point, which sounds like innuendo.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm beams at him.

In truth, he was worried Neal would get mad at him like before, for not thinking things through or for giving in to peer pressure. He’s relieved and he’s pleased.

“You would? I… I can show you.”

[conning]

He’s mid-bite-of-apple when Malcolm offers, so it takes him a moment of polite chewing and swallowing before he can answer, his free hand immediately going to Malcolm’s elbow again.

“Are you—you don’t have to, if it’s—you said you couldn’t change back and forth whenever, right? If you’re tired or if it’s risky, I can wait.”

[abrightboy]

"No; I'm okay right now." He turns to go into the bathroom. "I'm just going to do it in there because I don't know if it looks weird or gross but I definitely have to take my clothes off and it probably at least looks weird," he explains before ducking in there.

There's no noise inside, through the open door, apart from the rustling of fabric when he gets undressed, but a few moments later, a light grey wolf with bright blue eyes trots out of the bathroom and into the kitchen to look up at Neal, tail wagging faintly.

[conning]

“Holy shit,” Neal says softly. He’s not sure what he expected, but nothing so quiet or undramatic. He kneels, apple abandoned to the counter, and reaches out with both hands on instinct to pet him. He stops himself, barely. “Malcolm? Can…?”

[abrightboy]

The wolf tilts his head. It’s very canine but also very Malcolm at the same time.

Hi.

[conning]

He can’t not. Neal sinks his fingers into the wolf-Malcolm’s thick fur, makes a softly wondrous noise, and proceeds to give him a sound scritching.

[abrightboy]

Wolf-Malcolm wriggles contentedly, tail wagging becoming more pronounced.

[conning]

He can't even begin to think about how weird this is because right now he's face to face with a (admittedly smaller than average but still) wolf with beautiful blue eyes.

"Does it hurt? Changing? After the first time?"

[abrightboy]

Wolf-Malcolm gives his head a shake that looks more like he's trying to dry it, but wolf necks work differently than human necks. He bounces a little from foot to foot, then turns and runs around the island and then skids through a turn to charge towards the livingroom, leaping clear over the couch before trotting back around to the kitchen to see what Neal thinks about that.

[conning]

Neal feels a little bit like he’s coming unglued. It’s adorable, and art in motion, and also Malcolm, and those three things together make his brain cramp.

Which doesn’t stop him from kneeling again to scrub at Malcolm’s ruff. “Thank you. For. Showing me.”

[abrightboy]

Wolf-Malcolm licks the side of his face, then turns around and trots back to the bathroom. A few moments later, Malcolm emerges, finishing buttoning his shirt and looking a little flushed and breathless.

"Still getting the hang of it," he admits.

[conning]

"But it doesn't hurt." He's glad even if he finds it hard to believe. Neal goes to tend to the tea to give himself something to do with his hands while his brain tries to sort itself out. Now that the initial shock and awe is--if not passing--at least not so fresh, other questions are starting to swirl up. "When did it happen? Did Lark just tap you on the shoulder and say 'let's get that taken care of'? When did you decide?"

[abrightboy]

“It feels weird more than painful. Well, not a bad kind of painful. Like… growing pains. It kind of feels like growing pains. It’s only excruciating the first time,” Malcolm tells him cheerfully.

[conning]

Weird. Very weird. Neal fills their mugs and offers Malcolm his.

“So… when…?”

[abrightboy]

"Oh, right." He takes a sip of the tea and smiles gratefully at Neal for it. "Um, he called me the other day and he asked if I decided and I told him I was pretty sure I wanted to do it and he said well come over and we'll do it." He shrugs. "I guess I didn't really see the point of vascillating anymore. So I went."

[conning]

He manages to finish his sip of tea without choking or stopping himself. “…The other day?”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm thinks about it.

"Time is weird because we went on the hunting trip but Iris' space ship is a time ship." He pauses thoughtfully. "Yesterday. I think it was yesterday."