…

Hati smiled contentedly to himself as he weaved out of his last class of the day, trying to slip past the masses of students leaving the academic hall. He was meeting Milo at his dorm today, rather than walk there together like they’d usually been doing. That only made Hati smile a little wider. Hati had made a new friend! Milo was an awesome friend too. Hati liked him. Though, Hati did have a little bit of a dilemma. Werewolves in his pack regularly participated in platonic contact with everyone they were close to. Hati, like the other werewolves in his pack, extended the practice to his friends if they were comfortable with touching. If not, he showed affection differently, which was totally fine for Hati, but generally his friends welcomed the affection. However, with Milo it felt… different. Hati had kept back on platonic contact with him out of respect since he hadn’t asked how Milo felt about it (yet), but on the occasion they bumped into each other or otherwise made any contact, it made Hati feel what seemed like a buzz just under his skin, and his heart skipped a beat. 

Hati didn’t know what that meant.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about that! No matter what was going on with that, Hati still felt happy to spend time with his new friend, no matter if they talked the whole time or just stayed in the same area doing their own respective activities, so-

Hati stopped his walk as he felt a strange jolt in his chest. It was borderline painful, and more than a little unnerving. Hati wondered what it was. It didn’t feel like any of the sensations he commonly felt, and the only thing similar he could remember his pack members telling him about was—

F*ck.

Hati ran as fast as he could to his dorm room, slamming the door behind him. “What the fu-” Atlas sneered as he lounged in his bed until he spotted Hati’s expression and paused. “Hati, what happened?” he asked in their common tongue, visibly concerned. 

“Atlas, something’s wrong.” Hati said, his voice cracking in his panic. “Help. please.”

Atlas was out of his bed before Hati had even finished the sentence, gently putting his hands on Hati’s shoulders and steering to sit him on the bed. “Okay, okay. What’s going on, Hati?”

“I don’t- I don’t know, I just felt this pain in my chest and I’m dizzy and I don’t know what’s going on, Atlas.”

“Okay, Hati. deep breaths, okay?” Atlas said calmly, already checking Hati’s pulse and going about checking him up. “In three seconds, hold three seconds, out five seconds. Repeat that for a little bit.”

Atlas finished his checkup and went to his shelf to grab a couple ingredients. He moved to the table and started putting ingredients together as Hati struggled to get his breathing under control. Finally, Atlas came back with a cup full of a dark sludge that almost looked like it moved on its own. He crouched down until he was in Hati’s eyesight, ignoring how tightly Hati was gripping the bed, tearing holes in the blanket with his nails. “Here, Hati. drink this. It’ll help.”

Hati, who had finally managed to get his breathing under control, took the cup. “Thank you, Atlas.” He said softly before downing the entire thing in one gulp, hacking out a cough from the taste. 

“Hati…” Atlas said gently. “You know what this is… right?”

Atlas waited a few long minutes for Hati to respond, but the man simply remained quiet and didn’t meet his eyes. Atlas decided to try again. “Hati-”

“Don’t.” Hati ordered. “Don’t say it. It’s not starting now. I won’t let it. This is the worst time for it. I cannot happen now!”

Atlas sighed a little, knowing that how much his friend tried to will it away, the problem wasn’t going to be solved from denying it. “I’m sorry, Hati, but it’s true.” Atlas told him gently. “You’ve gone feral.”

…

Milo hummed quietly to himself as he walked into the now deserted academic wing of the building, two cups of coffee from the school’s cook floating beside him. He didn’t drink coffee, but he’d decided to buy Jake a coffee too. The man was his friend, after all. Though Jake had always been a distant friend at best—that unfortunately tended to be really common with the large majority of people that weren’t themselves sorcerers, and he’d only gotten more distant this year after Milo had told him that he was the liaison for their guests from the archipelago. No matter how distant he was though, Milo had still decided to get him coffee since the two were working so hard. 

Finally, Milo had made it to the AP Arcan History room, and opened the door. “Hey, Sirena, I know this is unexpected but I thought I’d bring you some Cof-” Milo’s eyes finally processed the sight in front of him, the image of Sirena under Jake not something he ever wanted to imagine, much less witness. 

Milo was lucky his magic only lost grip of the coffee and let them crash to the floor while sirena frantically shielded herself with her corset and dress, holding them against her. “Milo, I can explain, I swear.”