When Fred woke up to his wrists chained, body covered in dirt and a soft blanket with little bears on it on his shoulders, he only had two words to sum up his situation.

Not again.

The good in his little predicament was that instead of a middle-aged woman holding a gun to the middle of his head, he got himself an adorable specimen of a human with just about the softest looking hair Fred had ever seen. A bit greasy, but soft.

The snoring ruined the image but it was still there.

He looked even better when awake, pacing his living room while chewing the nail of his thumb, giving Fred a nice view of, well, everything.

“Can I ask one thing, sweetheart?” Fred asked, lips pulled up in an amused smile.

He chuckled when Jean jumped at his voice, turning around to face him with widened blue eyes and a surprised expression.

“...Yes,” Jean said, voice soft and quiet.

Fred could just about hear the little guy’s rapidly beating heartbeat, but even from that, he couldn't really tell if Jean was scared, nervous or excited. Maybe all of the above.

“Why do you have chains?” Fred asked, pulling up one of the chain pieces from the couch he sat on.

Jean’s eyes narrowed and his eyebrows furrowed. He seemed confused.

“That's your question? Not what are you doing here? How did you get here? Should I or should I not kill the barely adult human in the room?” Fred laughed at that last one, sitting back on the couch and tilting his head back to look at the early morning sky through the balcony.

He closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh of relief. Another full moon where no one got hurt or killed, a success.

“I'm not going to hurt you, Jean,” Fred said, eyes remaining closed.

“What?”

“I'm not going to hurt you just because you discovered a side of me. Let's see it as us getting to know each other.” He sat up and gave Jean a smile he hoped was charming.

The smaller man looked even more confused, running his fingers through his hair as he looked around him before looking right at Fred again.

“What if I tell someone?”

“Then congrats on being both beautiful and crazy. They say the crazy ones are wild in bed. Wanna test out that hypothesis?”

Fred wasn't sure if Jean heard him because the guy looked to have ignored his last words.

“...But I dragged you here against your will. Which I am really, really sorry about. I freaked out,” Jean quickly apologized, cheeks warming up slightly and it took everything in Fred to not pinch those cheeks and coo.

“Wouldn't be the first time that's happened, though I must say, this is the best result so far,” Fred said, eyeing Jean up, who, once again, looked to be ignoring Fred's flirting habit.

Nothing? Not even an eye roll? Here, am I getting rusty or something?

“...But-”

“Jean. Relax,” Fred said, getting off the couch. He stayed where he was when the guy took a step back, Jean's heartbeat increasing in beats again.

His hands up, trying to calm Jean down, he took a slow step forward and said, “I'm not gonna hurt you. Other than howling to the full moon and looking way too good to be real, I'm just like any other twenty-one-year-old college student.”

“Yeah well when someone is gonna hurt you, they don't usually give you a heads up.”

Fred had to agree with that.

“Okay,” he said with a sigh before stuffing his hands in the pockets of the large sweatpants. “Let's start over and forget last night ever happened. That cool?”

Jean scoffed, taking another quick step back when Fred stepped forward. Fred was worried he was going to trip himself.

“Forget last night? Are you insane? Last night was the best night of my life--”

We didn't have sex, did we?

“--I mean finding out werewolves are real? There's no way I'm forgetting that. It's like a dream come true.”

Fred rose an eyebrow at that, wondering if it was possible the kid was indeed crazy. Fred thought back to earlier, to when he had been scouring Jean's room for hints as to where he was, finding all the monster merchandise and stories and books and a bunch of books with satanic spells and rituals, he really should've seen those as hints.

I thought he was just doing some research for his writing…

“If it's a dream come true then why do ya look ready to run for the hills?” Fred asked, mostly trying to scare the guy when he ran and was behind Jean in a matter of two seconds.

His smile fell and his expression changed into one of surprise when Jean turned around with shining eyes and an excited smile. Fred got really uneasy when Jean squealed.

Fred had no idea what was going on, and that was odd in itself because he wasn't the one that discovered a huge international secret. One moment, the dude is panicking, next, he's suspicious, and then scared and then scoffing and now? He looked like he had just entered fanboy heaven and Fred one of his saints.

“That was so fucking cool!” Jean said, squealing some more and it was an odd thing to see a grown man squeal and jump on the spot.

“Uh…” Fred said. He was lost for words, looking at the chair on his left as if it had answers on it.

Jean's emotions and reactions were giving him whiplash, and as amazing Fred knew he was, he didn't particularly think he wanted to have a sleep deprived fanboy in his face.

“How do you do that even though you're not in your wolf form right now? How come your wolf form lasts so long even though a 100% full moon only lasts for a minute? Do you remember anything from when you wolf out? Do you lose control like the books and movies say? Are you Irish or Scottish? There's an accent there. Did you get bitten? Are there more of you? Can a silver bullet actually kill you an--”

“Fucking hell, lad. Slow the fuck down, why don't ya?” Fred said, cutting Jean’s rapid-fire questions off by placing his hand over the shorter man's mouth.

When the guy nodded, Fred slowly let his hand drop, fingers twitching as he waited for the fast rambling to restart.

Jean let out a deep breath through his cracked, pink lips, giving Fred a sheepish smile.

“Sorry. I've just been holding it in. Had to be sure you weren't like going to kill me or anything, y’know?” Jean laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head.

Fred nodded, understanding that, but couldn't help but think Jean was a bit soft in the head. As was everyone that thought it was smart to hide him in their homes when they found out what he was.

This happens way too often. Mama’s right. I am a beacon for trouble.

“A way to avoid that would be not bringing unknown beings into your home. Also, don't bring any knocked out person to your home. I'm pretty sure it's illegal. How did you even get me here without alerting anyone?” Fred asked, only realizing that Jean would've had to have dragged him all the way from the woods back to town.

Jean shrugged like it wasn't that important and said, “Said you were a drunk friend. A town full of college kids, was a good excuse and nobody questioned.”

Huh, Fred thought. That's actually pretty good.

Fred sighed, yawning before he stretched out a hand and said, “The name’s Fred O’Dwyer. You can call me Fred, Freddie or all your dreams come true. I'm a 2nd-year psychology student at Lionel University. I like long walks, pun intended, and comic books. A pleasure to meet ya.”

Jean blinked his widened eyes rapidly at Fred’s larger hand. He tilted his head up at Fred, looking slightly out of his depth for some reason, and the dark bags added to the lost, tired puppy look before an excited smile took over his features and he grabbed the hand and shook vigorously.

“Jean Nguyen. First year English literature and screenwriting student at Lionel University! And I love the classics of horror! An honor to meet you!” Jean said, as excited as he looked as he nearly tore Fred's arm off with his handshake.

Fred powered through it, smile tense at the realization that they went to the same school and that Jean never did answer his question about the chains.