Hati curiously looked around as he listened to the excited chatter of the classmates around him. There was an excited buzz about the crowd, as if something truly wonderful had happened. Hati could remember similar energies with his pack around the holidays when they started decorating and getting ready for the festivities. 

“I’m so excited for PE today!” Someone declared happily. “It’s such a shame they canceled classes last week.”

Apparently, this class was fun. However, considering most of the other classes Hati had been forced to sit through, Hati didn’t know how fun this class would actually be. 

“Oh. Hati!” Milo waved at him from the other side of the crowd as they loitered in the field they’d been directed to, and weaved through the people to stand near Hati, smiling down at him. Gods, the man was tall. He might’ve been taller than even Fenrir… “I didn’t realize we had PE together!” Milo said happily, cutting through Hati’s thoughts like a knife. 

“Hi, Milo.” Hati greeted cheerfully. “Can I ask… What’s PE?”

Milo froze, and Hati could see him blink a couple times through his navy blue hair, as if he was surprised. “You… You don’t have PE back home?” Milo asked.

Hati tilted his head. Was it really that odd? “Well…” He thought through his answer for a moment before he finished explaining. “We don’t have a singular education system since so many different species need different things in development, so… no? I suppose?”

“Oh. Well, PE is an acronym– the first letter of each word put together– for Physical Education.” Milo explained, watching Hati’s expressions to make sure he understood the words he was saying so Hati actually benefited from the explanation. “It’s a class to exercise and keep the students physically healthy. We usually play games that involve a lot of movement.”

Hati lit up then, suddenly excited. “Oh!” He said excitedly. “You have a class for that? That’s so cool! My pack always just does that whenever we have time.”

“Alright, alright;” The teacher for the class called, clapping to get the student’s attention. “Quiet down, everyone! Now, to make up for classes being stalled, we’ll be playing Kingdom-” He had to pause as the students cheered in raucous excitement. “However, since it’s apparently not a common game on the archipelago according to some merchants I talked with, I’d like Hati to stay on the sidelines for a bit, until you get the rules.” The teacher grinned though and looked at Hati. “I hear werewolves are exquisite athletes though, so I expect great things from you.”

Hati could feel the eyes of a crowd of students boring holes into him, but he pretended that he didn’t notice. “I understand.”

“Alright, then we’re set!” The teacher announced. “Everybody from Jake to this side is one team, everyone else is the other! Get in positions!”

Hati sat down in the grass off to the side, excited to play some games as the teacher blew the whistle and started the game. He hadn’t been able to play any games since arriving in Arca, so it’d be nice to-

CRASH!

Hati flinched and tensed as he watched the class fight, and it couldn’t be classified as anything less than that. Hati frowned. This wasn’t good; it was making him uncomfortable. Back home, the games that werewolves play may have seemed violent, but pups from a young age had to promise not to harm other players to even participate and there were other rules in place as well to protect players from unintentional harm. This game though… Hati winced as he watched someone bend another player’s arm the wrong way and he heard a sickening pop. Yeah, there was no sense of fun in this for Hati. 

“Hati! Get in here! You can play upfront!” the teacher called, waving him up. Hati frowned. From what he could tell, the upfront positions were the more violent ones, but he could look into the teacher’s intentions later when he wasn’t going face-to-face with classmates that apparently got uncomfortably violent when given the chance. Hati conceded to avoid and deflect what he could until the class was over. He redirected the classmate hurtling at him and pushed him just enough so he plopped his butt on the ground, ducking under another’s arm a second later like it was nothing. 

Things went like this for quite a long while before the teacher called off the round in frustration. Too late, in Hati’s opinion, considering that more than half the class had at least one injury. “What are you doing? Aren’t werewolves supposed to be adept at sports?” the teacher demanded. 

“I feel like you have the wrong perception of werewolves.” Hati told him. 

The teacher scoffed, clearly not happy with that response. “Well, with participation like that, you’ll fail the class at this rate.”

“What?” Milo asked darkly, suddenly in between the two. He was one of the other few students who’d been unscathed. “That isn’t fair for Hati. He just got here.”

“I don’t make the rules about how students are graded.” the teacher said with a shrug. 

Hati could feel Milo narrow his eyes into a glare even with Milo’s back to him. “Then I’ll teach a class for him.”

The teacher blinked once; then twice. He seemed to process what that meant at a slower pace than he normally thought before he caved. “Fine, but I need a full report at the end of each class to grade everything.”

“Of course.”

“Alright, everyone!” the teacher announced. “Get up! Walk it off! Let’s go for round two!”

“Sorry, Hati, I didn’t ask…” Milo said as he turned to him. “Are you comfortable with that?”

“I’d prefer it, actually. Thanks.” 

…

“Okay, Hati, ready to get some exercise in?” Milo cheered, doing his best to garner a positive atmosphere from the very start. 

“Yeah!” Hati said, beaming. 

However, that enthusiasm didn’t last long. Pushups, lunges and other stretches, handstands… none of the exercises Milo had encouraged seemed to get Hati engaged. It felt strange to know werewolves were an incredibly athletic species, yet his new friend hadn’t been excited for any exercise since he’d explained what PE meant. Milo sighed as he timed Hati’s handstand. How could he help this situation?

“Hey, guys!” Atlas said cheerfully as he jogged up from the path connecting the athletic field to the main building. 

“Atlas! Hey!” Hati called excitedly, leaping out of his handstand and landing perfectly on his feet. 

“Hi, Atlas.” Milo greeted cheerfully as Atlas finally made it up to him, smiling politely. “What brings you here?”

“Hati mentioned you offered to give him a special PE class, so I decided to help you out.” Atlas explained with a thumbs up and a grin. 

“I hate to admit it, but…” Milo scratched at a nonexistent itch on his neck. “I’ll take all the help I can get. I know werewolves are extremely active and athletic,  but no amount of cheering-on seems to get him motivated…”

“Oh, well, that isn’t anything hard to fix.” Atlas said dismissively with a wave of his hand. Milo gave him a curious expression. “You just have to know how werewolves work, then it’s easy.”

Milo raised a brow slightly. It intrigued him to say the least. “What do you mean?”

Atlas snorted at him like Milo was asking something obvious. “You Arcan’s really are oblivious when it comes to folks from the Archipelago.” He teased. Milo just pinned him with a bemused expression to tell him to get to the fucking point. Atlas sighed. Apparently he’d given Milo a hint but he hadn’t picked up on it the way Atlas had hoped. “Hati isn’t human, Milo. He’s a pure-bred werewolf. Werewolves differ more from humans than you’d think.”

Milo looked at Hati, who’d gotten distracted chasing a butterfly, then back at Atlas. “He doesn’t seem that different.”

“Well, yeah, because we were threatened so we wouldn't act too much like monsters. That's why none of us show our natural forms. Or, well, relaxed human form in Hati's case. The point is, there's a lot of things that Arcans do that's different for Hati.  Same goes for sports. If Hati's not motivated about exercising,  you're probably just going about it the wrong way.”

That only confused Milo more, and he looked at Atlas with a bewildered and confused expression. “There’s a wrong way to encourage exercise..?”

Atlas scoffed out a laugh and started jogging a little further out into the field. He turned back to give Milo a teasing smirk and a wink. “Watch and learn, Princess.”

“Wh…” It took Milo a second to process the sentence fully. “Princess?!” He asked. Where had that come from?

“Hey, Hati! Come over here!” Atlas called to his friend. “We’re gonna do something!” 

Hati jogged up with a curious expression. “What are we doing?”

Milo could sense the sly grin Atlas gave from where he was standing a yard or two away. “We’re showing Milo something funny.” 

Hati tilted his head, not understanding what Atlas was getting at. To be fair, Milo didn’t really understand either; Hati was just the one that spoke up about it. “What do you me-”

Atlas, in place of saying anything to interrupt him, simply reeled his arm back, and launched a ball into the air with force no average human could muster, sending the ball that’d come from seemingly nowhere soaring impossibly high into the air as it sped away from them. Hati had abandoned his question the moment Atlas had thrown the ball, and a second later, it was as if he’d never been there in the first place. It was strange. One moment, he was there, and in what Milo felt like the blink of an eye, Hati was gone. 

However, Milo quickly realized that his new friend wasn’t just gone. He was running. Hati was already far past what any human could run in the same amount of time, making it slightly harder for Milo to notice. Hati leapt into the air then, somehow surpassing the treeline to catch the ball and free falling to the ground. Hati didn’t seem too panicked to be falling from a height that could easily harm any human with impact, though. Instead, he maneuvered himself in the air to land on his feet without even disturbing the ground underneath him. “Atlas!” Hati called excitedly, holding an arm up from the other end of the field. “I got the ball!”

Atlas, who’d moved back to stand next to Milo again whilst Hati was on his quest for the ball. “Great job, Hati! Bring it back and we’ll throw it again for you!”

“Okay!”

Milo gave a curious expression to the demon beside him. “Isn’t this just fetch?” he asked. 

Atlas gave Milo a look he couldn’t necessarily read. “Just don’t call it that in Hati’s earshot. It’s a… werewolf etiquette thing. Think of it as a running drill instead.” he answered. 

“Oh.” Milo said. “ okay. Thanks for letting me know.”

“No problem.” Atlas said cheerfully.

“Um… what about the ball though? Where did you get that?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s a trick I learned from the High Spirits when I started working with Hati. Most things like tennis balls and stuff aren’t durable enough to last one day with how werewolves play when they’re really excited. The High Spirits modified a spell so the ball is just a magically created ball that can withstand the beating. It’ll dissolve when you guys are done.” Atlas explained. 

“The other demons cared so much about the werewolves going through so many toys?” Milo asked. 

“Yeah, normally they wouldn’t, but apparently the High Spirits find werewolves cute or whatever, so they can practically get away with murder. Demons help werewolves with a ton of stuff in exchange for their help; symbiotic relationship and all that. Basically the story is that one of the High Spirits saw a werewolf really sad about it and decided to figure out a way to help.”

Milo chuckled in amusement. “The head demons think werewolves are cute? I mean, I can see why, but it’s pretty surprising.”

“You should see when they’re in packs. Werewolves are way more endearing than the stories let on. They do all kinds of stuff to show they appreciate the people they’re close to, and for whatever reason the High Spirits fell for it hook, line, and sinker. We’re not allowed to tell the werewolves though so they don’t end up stopping.” Atlas hummed. Milo laughed cheerfully. It was something wholesome that he really needed and appreciated today. Atlas sighed then. “Well, speaking of the High Spirits and now that I did what I came here to do, I have to go take and probably fail an oral exam with the High Spirits. Walk Hati back to his dorm for me when you're done, yeah?” 

Milo raised a brow in confusion, but responded anyway. “Uh… sure..?”

“Thanks.” Atlas said cheerfully. He waved to Hati, who waved back before Atlas disappeared in the direction of the main building.