What We Are

Chapter 12: After All These Years

Claude allowed himself to settle back into his routine despite the promise he made to himself in the woods. Yes, he'd start taking his soon-to-be position as Head Vampire more seriously, and yes, he'll do so with the intention of outwardly announcing his desire for Gratia Clan to have friendlier connections with werewolves—but he also had tests, assignments, and projects to accomplish at university.

The first thing Lottie did upon seeing each other again was ask how Claude's return to Tempest Grounds went. Claude gave the gist of what happened, he'd already told her last week what happened with Mr. Lasern. Lottie listened and did not push for more details. Long ago, she had established that there were things she'd rather not be privy to, and if Claude didn't share something then she trusted and respected him enough to know that she did not need to be involved.

Honestly, Claude just didn't want to burden her with more of his worries.

Lottie Goldenhart was the main person who made school days bearable for Claude. When it's the two of them at university, he liked that he could pretend his other responsibilities had a pause button.

Monday afternoon, she got Claude hooked on milk tea. The drink was sweeter than he expected, boba pearls at the bottom of the drink (Lottie called them sinkers) which Claude found delightful. Needless to say, it was his latest obsession and quickly became his go-to reward for a job well-done.

He needed such a discovery after some other events that happened so far this week. Footage of a certain alpha's duel reached Claude, only after it reached what seemed like the rest of the city.

Said alpha has not responded properly to any of Claude's worried texts. The milk tea helped curb some of the emotions that threatened to render him useless.

Regardless of such worries, Claude aced his thought paper for his Management Theory and Practice class along with two exams. Currently, after a last minute decision, Claude planned to drive to the milk tea shop nearest to his apartment. A quick glance at his cupboards and refrigerator solidified the idea—he needed to go grocery shopping too.

He'd just stepped out of a hot shower when his doorbell rang. Claude wasn't expecting anybody.

Leaving the towel he was using to dry his hair draped across his bare shoulders (he forgot to bring a shirt), Claude padded across the living room to peek at who was outside.

He hadn't been planning to let in whoever it was, but upon seeing his unexpected guest, Claude was twisting the doorknob and pulling it open in the next second, feeling his face instantly fall into a glare.

"You take on a duel with another Head Alpha and I have to hear about it from hosts of a late night show?!"

Dean Axel had the decency to look sheepish as he side-stepped into the apartment, Claude's glower following his movement. "I sent you a text saying I was alright."

Claude shut his front door with a little more force than necessary. "One text, and then radio silence for three days. You—" Claude inhaled deeply, unable to continue his planned ranting when his eyes fell on the alpha's arm. He was frustrated at Dean, but seeing the marks caused by the werewolf's opponent had Claude's shoulders sagging, his fingers reaching out instinctively to wrap around Dean's wrist.

The man on that late night show he stumbled upon painted the picture of what happened to Dean's duel with another Head Alpha. His information had been from some secret source who witnessed the whole thing go down at City Forest. Claude wanted to examine the damage for himself.

There were multiple fading white scars, the smaller ones fully-healed leaving only a few pinkish lines scattered from Dean's elbow to just above his wrist. Gently, Claude ran his fingers over the prominent scarring. They probably didn't hurt anymore, but the footage he'd seen of Kihyun Na's attack which led to these scars replayed in Claude's mind and made him swallow. "It must've been brutal if your body hasn't healed them completely."

Dean didn't answer. Claude turned the werewolf's wrist to reveal the underside of his forearm. There were bigger scars there, and Claude's face grimaced.

"You know," Claude looked up at Dean's sudden words. The sight of a sly smirk on the alpha's face made Claude's eyebrows furrow. "I usually wouldn't mind having a shirtless man caress me, but I've been standing for hours and my feet are a bit sore."

Claude had forgotten he was still shirtless. He'd forgotten that his hair was still wet and tangled from the shower, droplets still littered on his chest. This was the first time that Dean's seen him in such a state, and that fact brought heat to Claude's face.

Instantly, he let go of Dean's arm. "You're an asshole." He turned around, the echo of Dean's laughter following him up to his bedroom where he rummaged for a shirt and willed away his blush.

Going back downstairs, Claude found his footsteps stopping at the final step of the staircase. From there, he took in the sight of Dean in the living room on his phone, feet propped up on the coffee table like usual. His hoodie was tossed on the other end of the sofa, leaving the alpha in a plain white t-shirt and sweatpants.

It's a familiar scene, but it still managed to affect Claude in such a way that his grip on the wooden railing tightened.

Dean looked like he belonged in Claude's apartment more than any of the furniture and decorations surrounding him.

"I would have expected the great Claudius Fernsby to know that staring is impolite." Dean glanced up at Claude without actually tilting his head, another sly smirk present.

"Insufferable," Claude scoffed below his breath, loud enough for Dean to hear. He was definitely not blushing again, of course not. "At least tell me what happened before I kick you out for being a nuisance in my home." It was an empty threat; they both knew it wasn't going to happen.

Dean sighed like he was being majorly inconvenienced, readjusting his position to better relay the events which led to his formal duel with Kihyun Na. He included even the minor details, which Claude appreciated. The host of that late night show had failed to mention more than half of what Dean told Claude, including the fact that it was a duel for usage of the Lycan River located in Red Village.

"Why can't you allow another Pack to use the Lycan River?"

Dean shook his head. "It's more so that I personally don't trust the Thorne Pack. Kihyun believed the Lycan River had healing properties, he wanted to bring the members of his Pack who were suffering from an unknown disease to see if the water spirits would heal them."

As a child, Claude's read all urban legends and the myths which encompassed their world and became part of their history and culture. More often than not, vampire legends included werewolves. Many argued that all famous legends were real, and even from an intellectual standpoint some of them didn't seem too far-fetched. But this story about the Lycan River healing through water spirits—Claude's never heard of such a tale. "Coming from a werewolf who's been bad-mouthing you and your Pack from the start, the reasoning does feel a little suspicious."

Dean shifted his position on the sofa again, arm going behind his head. His eyes lit up with a sudden thought, completely clueless to how Claude eyed the way his muscles pushed against his shirt's sleeve. "We've never talked about Kihyun Na before. I'm a little surprised that you know about him." Dean grinned. "You keeping tabs on me, Claude?"

"Don't flatter yourself too much. Anybody who watches the news knows Kihyun Na despises anything that doesn't place him on top." The thought had Claude rolling his eyes. His mother would have flicked him for it, but it was a valid response. "I usually have more patience when it comes to idiots, but whenever Kihyun Na comes up I lose all sense of tranquility. The things he says about you and your Pack are so messed up. I've tried to give the benefit of the doubt, but the man doesn't seem to–"

Claude made the mistake of looking at Dean then, and for that he failed continue his speech. Dean was looking at him, head tilted coupled with an all-too fond smile he was probably unaware of even wearing.

"Never mind." Claude closed his eyes, fingers massaging his temples. "I regret this whole friendship. First, you get injured and send one text, then you visit without warning, and now you're purposefully being difficult for some reason–"

"You remember the night we first met?"

It felt like Claude was making sharp turns while going over the speed limit; the change of topic and tone was giving him whiplash.

"What?"

"The night I escaped from being murdered by rogue vampires, when you found me in the woods of your estate." Dean looked down at his scarred forearm. Claude couldn't read his expression, couldn't decipher what brought this on until Dean continued, "I was also injured pretty badly that night. I'm sure you remember?"

A rhetorical question. Claude nodded anyway.

He'd met Dean on a winter's night, on a night Claude was supposed to be completely alone.

Neither of them could have predicted what would happen years after that fateful encounter—a young werewolf who already experienced so much, and a vampire who was only beginning to understand his own body.

Dean's whole demeanor took a one-eighty turn, the playfulness he exhibited when he first arrived disappearing into the shadows. "You know what kept pushing me to find my way back to Red Village?"

Claude decided to entertain these questions despite the blatant effort Dean was showing in order to change their previous topic. "Your Pack?"

The Head Alpha huffed out a quick laugh. "Partly, yeah. Truth be told, I almost gave up halfway. But as I half-limped, half-dragged my exhausted body back to Red Village, I kept telling myself that I needed to get to safety so I could one day thank the vampire who not only offered me the first decent meal I had in two days, but also kept me company when he should've called his parents to let them know a werewolf was trespassing in their territory instead."

Somewhere in between Dean's answer, Claude had sat on the bottom step of the staircase, body angled to face Dean who remained on the sectional sofa. "You've never told me before," Claude murmured.

Dean shrugged. "I haven't told you that your kindness that night was probably the biggest reason why I didn't grow up to hate vampires after what happened to my parents."

The Head Alpha's tone, his stance, his expression—they all exhibited nonchalance, like he wasn't admitting something so heavy.

Meanwhile, Claude's mouth parted in disbelief. "I... Really?"

"You've been working your magic ever since." Dean's smile was softer now, no longer sly or playful. It's the kind of smile Claude wouldn't see as often as others.

"After that night... I never expected to see you ever again," Claude confessed, picking out lints from the material of his pants so he had an excuse not to look at Dean as he said this. "I had almost forgotten about you. I even tried to convince myself a few times that I had just dreamt up that entire encounter. Yet, after eight years, that night we saw each other again at Mr. Dizon's party... If you hadn't mentioned the hare, I wouldn't have believed you."

He hear Dean hum in understanding. "You were eleven, I was in werewolf form, and you didn't get my name. I hadn't expected you to have a clue about who I was, either. Not even when news about my parents and my survival broke out." A pause. Then, in a much quieter voice, "I never forgot about you though."

Claude would sometimes find himself pondering about his and Dean's friendship on nights when he'd lie in bed, staring up at his ceiling waiting for sleep to come.

It had been a shock for Claude to find out that the werewolf who approached him in the garden during a Werewolf Representative's fortieth birthday party was the same werewolf he had helped back then. Claude had met the Head Alpha of New Oasis state's biggest werewolf Pack as a child, and did not even realize it.

The most shocking part of their reunion had been the Head Alpha's desire to remain in touch.

"Who would have thought secretly exchanging numbers would get us here, huh?" The grin from Dean's words could be heard.

Claude leaned back, placing both elbows on the step behind him before meeting the alpha's gaze. "If I'd have known that four years later you'd be taking up my sofa space after nearly giving me a heart attack, I wouldn't have agreed to keep messaging you back then." His smile gave away his fib.

Dean shook his head as if to say you're not fooling me. Some more staring (Claude could not tell if this was becoming normal for both of them), then Dean seemed to realize that Claude wasn't in his usual house clothes. "Why are you all dressed up?"

"I was going to head out to buy groceries. Plus the supermarket has a stall that sells the milk tea I want."

"Milk tea?" Dean raised an eyebrow.

Claude explained to him how Lottie introduced to him the drink. The particular bit about it being Claude's self-reward had Dean's eyes lighting with amusement. "I think you'd like it too," Claude said.

Dean suddenly stood, walking to the decorative table near Claude's front door to search through the key bowl.

Much slower, Claude also got on his feet. A little confused would be an understatement. "Dean? What are you–"

"You said you planned to buy groceries and grab your self-reward drink, right?" Dean found what he was looking for. It turned out to be the keys to Claude's car. "I can drive you."

That didn't make sense. "Why would you?"

Dean retrieved his hoodie from the sofa, tugging it over his head as he replied, "I don't want to be the reason you cancel your plans. Might as well make myself useful while I'm here, right?"

Claude watched Dean run his fingers through his dark hair after the hoodie ruffled it out of place. "We can't–"

"I know, I know. Us walking together into one of your family's supermarkets will be scandalous." Dean's tone made it come across like the werewolf didn't actually believe in his own words, but Claude knew better. They both did. "Wait, you were talking about the Wise Shopper's Supermarket near that Thai place, right? It's the closest supermarket to your apartment."

Whiplash. "Dean, I can drive myself. I thought you said your feet were sore?"

"Your car's in the garage?"

"Dean."

The alpha smiled at Claude's exasperated expression. "Don't worry. When we get there, I'll wait for you in the car. No one's going to know. Now, put on your shoes. Your whole speech about milk tea has made me very curious."

Before Claude could try to snatch his car keys away, Dean had already stepped out of the door.

It would be the first time that they'd ride in the same vehicle, the first time they went out of Claude's apartment together.