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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]

“From the pain,” Malcolm explains. And then, pointing out the obvious: “When my bones changed.”

[conning]

“Right.” Jesus Christ. “Right. Was there any concern around it… being fatal?”

Things he absolutely should have asked the first time they had this conversation, but Neal wants to know exactly how hard he should be slapping himself mentally.

[abrightboy]

“I don’t think so. That seems like the sort of thing someone would have mentioned,” Malcolm muses. “Anyway, that only took a couple of minutes and then I was sort of… disoriented at first. Because everything is taller than it used to be and you can hear things you couldn’t hear before… that sort of thing.”

[conning]

“Yeah it does.” Neal’s statement is less agreement than wondering what Lark might not have mentioned about this whole thing. He shakes his head, getting back on track. “Were you stuck? How did you change back? Where did you even do this, in his cabin?”

[abrightboy]

“In his cabin, yeah. And then when I sort of got my bearings, he took me to see Iris and she took us on her ship to… go hunting together. Like. An initiation, I guess,” Malcolm tells him.

[conning]

Oh. That’s also concerning, in its own way. Neal circles the island at last so he can be close enough to Malcolm to touch his elbow gently. “Did you want to go hunting? Are you okay?”

[abrightboy]

“Um…” For Neal, that’s probably most of an answer. “I mean, it’s what you do, I guess. They took me to hunt a moose, so I could understand the strength and stamina that I have now. And… the chasing part and figuring out how to corner it was kind of fun, but I’m not sure we needed to go for the kill. I can still kind of… taste it,” he says distastefully.

[conning]

Neal is making several silent notes to talk to Lark and Iris once he’s had a chance to figure out what to say that isn’t ‘what the actual fuck is wrong with you?’

In the mean time he gives Malcolm a tight hug. “Hopefully the tea will help with that.”

[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.