“Woah,” Carmen breathed as they finally entered the campus gates of their destination. 

“Look!” Hati said excitedly, poking the glass on his side’s window. “They have a forest here! We can go hiking!” He cheered, nearly wanting to cry in relief. Though he’d heard about Arca from the stories passed down through his pack, he hadn’t really been able to imagine what it’d exactly look like. He’d been worried almost the entire trip that they didn’t have many forests, and he’d have nowhere to breathe. The woods were sacred to werewolves, and the thought of not being able to visit something so very important to him was worrying.

The carriage turned as the road did, showing hundreds of Arcan students bearing posters and banners to welcome them. Though the thought was there, the actual intention seemed to fall short, as most of the supportive messages were backhanded at best and mildly offensive at worst. They included “Welcome! Please don’t eat us!”, “Arcans are not food!”, and “If you hurt any of us, we’ll kick your ass!” among the better slogans.

“A little too much, don’t you think?” Atlas asked, eyeing the fiasco distastefully. 

“I-” Hati paused, taking a long moment to read Arcan– his least practiced language, since he never thought he’d actually need it. “Does that sign say Arcans are friends, not food?”

Atlas only glanced at it. “Yep.”

Hati scowled bitterly as he growled in a low tone. “Hati.” Teophania scolded angrily. “Don’t you dare.”

“But-”

Teophania shot a death glare at her friend, causing him to close his mouth so fast his teeth clicked together loudly inside his mouth. “We are supposed to represent our people with diplomacy and tact, which means: no screaming, no magical accidents, and no fighting. This isn’t like our packs, covens, or families back home. They don’t know anything about our cultures or traditions, meaning that anything that doesn’t adhere to arcan standards may be seen as hostile or offensive.”

“Our traditions don’t matter to them, and yet we’re expected to know and understand theirs?” Atlas pointed out. He scoffed a moment later as he looked out the window. “That’s such bull…”

“That’s just the way things are right now. We can only hope that our efforts may change that.” Teophania answered. Then, she sighed. “I may be a couple centuries older than you in human years, but…” She gave an expectant look to Hati and Atlas. Due to them both working interculturally with their respective liaisons, the two had spent the most time together and had subsequently caused the most trouble when paired with each other. “Could you two at least try to act a little mature?”

Hati just blinked in surprise, but Atlas was quick to argue, as usual. “What?! Why are you picking on us! That’s not fair!” 

“Yeah!” Hati added, backing his friend up easily. “Give us one reason we  aren’t the mature ones!”

“The Samhain Incident.” Teophania answered with a deadpan expression. 

Hati paled immediately, and Atlas broke eye contact, neither of them wanting to admit that was a good answer. “You don’t have to remind me, that’s for sure.” Hati chuckled unsurely.

“Besides, it technically wasn’t even our fault.” Atlas explained with a shrug, getting a questioning look from his werewolf friend. “I mean, sure, I cast the spell, but that druid I was tutoring should have paid better attention to my lesson and should have known how to handle a fully turned werewolf hurtling at them full-speed.”

Hati’s jaw was dropped before it slowly closed and he tackled Atlas roughly. “You did do that on purpose!” He yelled angrily. 

“Ack! Hati, no fair!” Atlas complained. “The carriage is warded against magic!”

“Good!” Hati snapped loudly and angrily. “Then you can’t cheat like you usually do!” 

Atlas chuckled then, his pupils shifting back to their natural slits. “Hati…” he grinned slyly, taking his friend’s claim as a challenge. “Since when have I needed to cheat?"

…

Milo took another cleansing breath as the carriage finally bumbled up the road and came to a stop. It rocked and shook concerningly, as though the poor carriage was on its last leg. He held in his frown, knowing now was not the time to get all butt hurt about a carriage. However, maybe later he’d write a strongly worded letter to his father about the state of the carriage he sent to bring guests into the country.

The carriage’s footman opened the door with a click, breaking the soundproofing magic and letting the shouting from inside flood into the courtyard. Milo, along with his girlfriend and the headmaster, cringed; however his girlfriend and the headmaster showed obvious disgust as well.

Well, Milo said girlfriend, but that didn’t mean he actually wanted to be dating her. It wasn’t that Sirena Anderson wasn’t pretty or smart or anything– Sirena was actually very beautiful to Arcan standards, and she always boasted wearing the newest and most fashionable dresses in the country. The problem in their relationship wasn’t Sirena; it was Milo. The problem? Milo wasn’t attracted to women.

He’d tried to tell Sirena when she’d asked him out for the seventh time, but no matter what he told her, she wouldn’t have any of it. Eventually Milo caved after she’d threatened self harm, but the both of them had agreed on not engaging in any sex or PDA, so he reluctantly accepted this aspect of his life.

“OW! ATLAS!” a loud voice shocked Milo out of his thoughts. “HANDS OFF THE EARS!”

Two women came out of the carriage first, both looking irritated at the situation, but moving out of the way when a man with blue hair stepped out, and proceeded to drag the last man out by what looked like his hair, but upon closer inspection were actually ears. His apparent tail was tucked between his legs even as he flailed against the man with bright blue hair. “Hm…” The blue haired man hummed as he pretended to contemplate. “I don’t really feel like it.”

“Atlas!” the other shouted as he kept squirming. “Come on!”

“Maybe you should apologize for tackling me when I couldn’t properly defend myself.” Blue hair suggested.

“You–” The other cringed as Blue Hair’s grip tightened a little. “Ah! Ow, owww! You can defend yourself fine!” He snapped. “And you know pulling on my ear like that hurts!”

“But you hurt my feelings, Hati, and you know how prideful demons are~. Therefore, you should apologize.” 

“Not even if Ymir revives himself!” the other, Hati, apparently, snapped angrily. He only let out a little squeak of pain when Blue Hair tugged on the ears in his grip before he flailed again in an outright tantrum. “Ouch! Atlas what the hell, that hurt! Ow!”

“Guys.” The woman with purple hair’s voice cut through their argument like a well-sharpened knife, and they both paled before looking at her exasperated face. “Seriously?”

“What happened to using Arcan customs during introductions for the sake of civility?” The other woman asked. 

The men untangled themselves in an instant and a puff of purple smoke. When cleared, the shorter man’s ears and tail were gone as if they’d never existed, and he nervously scratched at the back of his neck. “Sorry, Carmen. Sorry, Tiff.” He said. 

“We were just goofing around a bit. Don’t worry.” Blue hair hummed, getting an affirmative nod with a smile from his shorter counterpart.

Headmaster Anderson cleared his throat pointedly, leaving Milo internally cringing over his constant need to be in charge of everything around him. He’d already thrown numerous tantrums over his not having control over the program, and he was no doubt pissed that his little welcome display, a sad attempt to try to take credit for something he had no hand in, failed miserably and wanted to take it out on someone. 

“We treat people the way we would prefer to be treated here. That means we do not allow violence on this campus, or in Arca as a whole.”

Hati tilted his head and furrowed his brows in what seemed like unmistakeable confusion. His friend next to him, smiled charmingly at Sirena. “Hey, there, beautiful.” He said cheerfully. “My name’s Atlas, what’s yours?” 

“No.” She said immediately. 

Atlas shrugged. “Oh, okay. That’s totally fi-”

“Ew.” She interrupted, annoyance and disgust clearly in her voice. Atlas physically flinched. 

“Alright, Atlas, enough of that.” The purple haired woman said, pushing the man back to stand next to Hati. “It’s very nice to meet-”

Apparently it was Headmaster Anderson’s turn to interrupt their guests, as if this first diplomatic impression couldn’t get any worse. “Welcome to the Arcan Institute of Collegiate Academia. I’m Headmaster Anderson, and while I can’t speak for everyone, I can say I’m very excited to host you here at our university.”

“Right,” Atlas muttered, getting an elbow from Hati.

Milo decided it was time to attempt to fix this dumpster fire of a welcome. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you all. I’m so very honored.” Milo said, his grin just as bright as his eyes. “My name is Milo, and I’m-”

“The crown prince!” Sirena interrupted cheerfully. Milo frowned at her, but she either didn’t notice or, more like her, didn’t care. “And I’m his girlfriend, Sirena. I run the student council here.”

“I’m happy to help you with anything you might need.” Milo corrected with passive aggressive kindness, a tone cultivated from decades of diplomatic and political meetings that he was obliged to attend, trying to subtly but also not subtly tell Sirena to refrain from putting words in his mouth. “I know our traditions most likely differ quite a bit, and that’s completely alright. I hope your trip here wasn’t too rough.”

“It wasn’t, thank you.” Teophania said calmly, shaking hands with him when he offered. “I’m Teophania Helinaste, but I’ve also been called Tiffany or Tiff for short. It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too. May I call you Tiffany?”

“Of course.” 

“Wonderful; thank you.”

Carmen shook his hand next. “I’m Carmen Loch; nice to meet you.”

“You too, Carmen.” Milo hummed, offering his hand to Atlas after they’d finished shaking hands. However, even when a few moments passed, neither of the men shook his hands. Atlas merely regarded him with an indignant raised brow. Milo gave a nervous chuckle. “Is something wrong?”

“Demons and werewolves don’t do handshakes.” Atlas explained. “It’s a cultural no-no for both of us due to our family and pack traditions. Sorry if we offended.”

“Oh, no, you’re totally fine. I didn’t know, and I apologize for putting you in an awkward position.” Milo hummed, relieved he didn’t add to the pile of garbage this welcome fiasco had started out as. “I would love to learn how to properly greet you if you’re comfortable teaching me.”

“Demons bow to each other, though with a straight back.”

“Okay, then.” Milo gave a short bow, and Atlas returned it in tandem with him. “It’s nice to meet you properly, Atlas.”

“You too.”

“Werewolves do have different greetings for different situations and people with different needs.” Hati explained. “If there’s an illness, or someone has trouble with hearing or verbal communication, we use this motion.” He smiled cheerfully and did a motion that looked something similar to a short wave. “If not, we use something similar to a handshake, like this,” he patted his palms against his forearms with his fingers outstretched. “If there isn’t an illness, we might use both ways.”

“Cool!” Milo responded. “May I try the handshake with you?”

“Sure!” Hati said happily. 

“So…” Milo attempted the handshake, and Hati humored him. “Like this?”

“Almost. You’re gripping my forearm, but you want to stick your fingertips away from the other’s arm in this greeting.”

“Okay, then…” Milo uncurled his fingers. “Like this?”

Hati beamed. “Perfect! You’re a natural!” He said cheerfully as he smiled up at Milo. 

Milo smiled too, and met his eyes. Milo felt his heart skip a beat for a moment when he met those golden eyes, as if the world itself had stopped turning for an instant and the only thing in it that mattered was the two of them. Milo brushed it off when time started back up again so he didn’t make the flow awkward. “Wonderful. It’s nice to meet you; I’m Milo.”

“I’m Hati.”

“A wonderful name.” 

But, alas, like all good things, their moment didn’t get to last, as Sirena shouldered Milo aside as if he wasn’t the crowned prince of her country. “Hey, you’re the werewolf, right?”

Hati raised a brow and hesitated, but still answered her. “I am a werewolf, yes.”

“Oh, okay! I just want to let you know that I don’t blame you guys at all for you guys going on violent, livestock-killing rampages every full moon?”

Hati looked like every process of his body had halted for a moment. “What?” He bit out, clearly keeping his anger restrained for the sake of diplomacy.  Then, after a moment and a cleansing breath, he responded again. “It’s fine; Packs don’t actually do that unless something provokes them beforehand, like someone trying to hurt or kidnap a pup.”

“Oh, you don’t have to make an excuse! After all, it’s just instincts!”  Sirena said happily, holding up a pointed finger. “No hard feelings?”

Hati seemed to swallow a little of his pride, and nodded. “Fine.”

Milo clapped to get everyone’s attention, hoping he could yet again salvage this circus of a greeting. “Well!” He said cheerfully. “We should get going on the tour! After all, we only have today to get you all settled in, since classes start tomorrow.” He smiled at their guests. “Shall we?”