Second Grade English (Attn Kiyo)

He and Kiyo were spending some rare quality time at one of the fires. Leo had breezed in earlier and shared a few beers with them while telling them the story of his latest drama. It involved a married woman, a parakeet and a misunderstanding. Hilarity as usual. Tavi had just left them for the night, muttering something about an early appointment with a client who -had- to meet at some ungodly hour because she was far too self important to rearrange her own schedule to accommodate a meeting during normal business hours. The life of the independent detective was not always glamorous.

That left him and Kiyo sitting alone together on one of the logs a little ways away from the fire.

He had been thinking of Josh quite a bit tonight and wished he could share things like gatherings and his culture and background with him. That feeling was rather frightening. He hadn't been this serious about someone in a long time and once that particular wolf was out of the bag there was no stuffing it back in.

Gris had very little experience with telling someone what he was. At least not someone this important to him. He could lose Josh and that scared him even more than sharing this part of himself.


"Can I talk to you about something?” He didn't know where else to turn. Kiyo's boyfriend was supernatural himself so their problems were different but perhaps his friend had some similar experiences or at least so sage unemotional advice.

Kiyoshi Salinas 11 years ago
Kiyo was enjoying himself, staring with rapt attention at the beautiful flickering flames of the campfire next to Gris. Tavi had been there until just a little while ago and while he missed having her there he liked spending time with Gris. Gris seemed especially quiet and thoughtful tonight, though, and Kiyo was sort of wondering what was bothering his friend.

When Gris asked him if they could talk Kiyo immediately nodded.
"Yeah, of course," he said. Gris had always been there to lend him an ear or a shoulder, whatever he needed, so he would be happy to help his friend however he could.

He turned to balance himself on the log they shared, crossing his legs and sitting lotus-style on it, looking somewhat precarious but quite comfortable as he waited for Gris to continue. He hoped it was nothing serious; Gris had been so very happy lately with Josh and he certainly deserved it.
Greer Grayson 11 years ago
Gris started to speak, opened his mouth, stopped, took a breath and tried to start again. He looked at Kiyoshi and sighed. "I was thinking of telling Josh that I am a werewolf.” There he said it. The idea had ceased to be a nebulous thing floating around in his head and became more real for having said it out loud.

"Am I crazy?” He brought his knees up, wrapping his arms around his legs, and rested his chin on them. "Maybe it is too soon.”

Looking at Kiyoshi, he asked. "What do you think?” He would ask how Kiyo and Evan sorted out their differences that first time but that had to be different. Kiyo had been hired for his current job by the owners of Terminus with full knowledge that he was a werewolf. There was no need to have an awkward conversation about what Kiyo was. Perhaps there were other difficult conversations, like how werewolves and vampires weren't traditionally friends and how the pack viewed vampires with a suspicious eye at best, and as something completely evil quite often.

"I don't want to lose him, which might happen if I keep lying to him about the full moon.” Gris's assistant told him that Josh had called to ask where he was on the second night of the full moon. Luckily he had told her to tell anyone who asked that he was out having dinner or in a meeting with a client but those kinds of things were going to catch up to him eventually. He wasn't going to be able to always have meetings and work. Eventually he was going to get injured and then heal too fast to be normal. And then there was that silver that Josh constantly wore. One day he was going to touch that damn necklace and it was going to burn the hell out of him. How did he explain that? Allergy? Severe, immediate, very painful, odd allergy that, once the silver was gone, would heal quickly. Trouble in the making.

"It also might happen if I explain that I am not human like he thought and that for at least three nights of the month I become something furry and howl at the moon.” How did that whole idea start? Wolves didn't really howl at the moon. That would be a waste of time and energy. Perhaps someone thought they were gazing at it when their head was thrown back for a howl? He didn't know but he did know that becoming a wolf wasn't considered normal by most humans. Certainly not the kind of relationship road block one would normally expect.
Kiyoshi Salinas 11 years ago
When Gris told him where his thoughts had been Kiyo's mouth formed itself into a little 'oh' of understanding. No wonder Gris seemed out of sorts. That was no small thing.

His first thought when Gris asked him was that his friend must hide what he was, always. Humans didn't understand. Kiyo remembered very poignantly what had happened when he was ten. Changing in his mother's arms, running away, and returning days later to discover he was dead to them. Not a word more, no money, not even the address of a helpful aunt or cousin. They may as well have killed him themselves, leaving him on the streets like a beggar, but for his foster parents. Kiyo had never told anyone what he was, unless they were already in the know.

And look at the trouble it had caused. He had never been able to keep a job, he was always considered unreliable and undependable. He moved hopelessly from place to place trying to fit in. What a godsend Evan and Guillaume had been. And how lucky he was to have Evan, who knew him and accepted him and loved him anyway.

That was not the right advice to give Gris. Kiyoshi knew it even as he thought it, but he didn't know what else to say. Fortunately Gris continued ad Kiyo nodded in understanding of Gris's fears that he could lose Josh either way.


"If you had to lose him," he said, "is it better to have lost him being honest about what you are, or is it better to have lost him and him leave thinking you're lying to him or cheating on him or something?"

Then he lifted his shoulders.
"He might not care," Kiyo ventured hopefully. "Or, maybe he'll like it. I mean, he seems to really love you. I've watched him. Did you think he might... you know, want to be one of us? Would you want him to be?"

The topic was uncomfortable for Kiyo, who had, of course, had no choice in his own Gifting and would never have chosen it for himself. He couldn't even conceive of Gifting someone, and was never present when children of the Pack were Gifted. But he understood that he was abnormal. For all he knew Josh would love to become a werewolf like Gris and they could run together every month.

Kiyo didn't know about things like that, but he thought that might make Gris very happy.
Greer Grayson 11 years ago
Kiyoshi didn't say much in the beginning and that began to worry him. Perhaps his friend thought it was a stupid idea and completely insane. Maybe it was too soon. Maybe he should ask Tavi; she had been a werewolf all her life. Perhaps this issue had come up for her a little more often than it had for himself and Kiyo.

His friend finally spoke to ask a very good question; the one that had been running around in his head while he was considering telling or not telling Josh. Would he rather lose Josh to the truth or to lies? He would rather not lose Josh at all?


"See I keep thinking that if I tell him now then I might lose him immediately but if I wait then perhaps I can find some good way to break it to him...gently.” However one did that with such news. "But ultimately if he is going to leave me one way or the other then I would prefer it be because of the truth. Then at least I would know.”

Kiyoshi suggested that Josh might be okay with the news, even like it. "Like it?” Gris raised his eyebrows. "Like he might secretly have a werewolf kink? Is there even such a thing?” There was certain a vampire kink; there were plenty of goth fan girls and boys for the undead. Vampires were considered sexy. Werewolves were considered furry balls uncontrollable rage. Not exactly romance novel material. He had heard there was a growing number of people interested in furries....but he doubted Josh was one of them. Gris was also pretty sure they actually like something more anime and cute. Something that looked less like a large lethal wolf.

He hadn't really thought beyond the telling the truth to Josh. Kiyoshi asked him whether he would want Josh to be one of us. Gris hummed thoughtfully.
"Yes, I think so. I mean, if he wants to be, obviously.” He wasn't about to demand it of Josh. "I would like sharing that part of me with him...Its a big step.” Gris sighed. "First I have to get past the telling the scary information to the human part.” Then they could consider a life of werewolf wonder together. He would love spending his whole life with Josh. At least he was pretty certain of that at the moment and seemed to be becoming more certain the more time they spend with each other. But a human wouldn't live as long as him and a portion of his life would remain closed to Josh if his partner chose to remain human. It wouldn't be the end of the world to him and he would still care about Josh even if he rejected the thought of becoming Vyusher R'asa but he could imagine them growing old, slowly, together and that seemed so much better.
Kiyoshi Salinas 11 years ago
"Well, so you have the first answer," Kiyo said. "You don't want to keep it secret from Josh, so you'll tell him, regardless of the outcome. All you need to know now is when and how."

He was trying to keep things simple, not particularly for Gris's benefit but because in most situations Kiyo figured he was probably not the smartest person present. If he could understand a problem, he assumed everyone else around him could too.

When Gris brought up the notion of a werewolf fetish Kiyo blushed a little.
"Oh no, no... I mean, not like that," he said. He took a deep breath, which to others might have made them seem nervous. But Kiyo was tasting the scents around him, determining no one was close enough to hear when he dropped his voice and said, "I mean, there are things Evan and I can't talk about. Things neither of us can really discuss with he other and that's difficult sometimes, because we want to help each other. I just thought Josh might like knowing about you, because it's you. Because it's a secret you can't tell anyone but the people you love, and sometimes the principle of the thing matters more than the actual secret. If that were the case you could tell him you had three eyes, a prehensile tail, and really loved women and he'd be thrilled to hear it."

Furthermore, it seemed like Gris had thought about Gifting Josh. That made Kiyo feel a mix of emotions. Happiness for his friend, because it did seem like the perfect man for Gris had indeed fallen out of the sky and landed on him. At the same time he felt a little envy, that he would never know how it felt to share that with Evan. Kiyo would grow old and die long before Evan ever did. Evan would go on indefinitely, and while that made Kiyo happy too, he wondered if despite Evan's claims to the contrary he would fade into memory and then fade out of it altogether. It seemed logical; after two thousand years there were things Evan did not remember about his human life. In another two thousand, it only made sense that there would be things Evan wouldn't remember about the short life of the werewolf he'd once loved.

With a little sigh Kiyo smiled at Gris. He reached out and rested his hand on his friend's shoulder, giving a little squeeze.
"I'm really happy for you," he said. "Just finding someone to share everything with - it's no small thing. And I think Josh is a good person. He seems level-headed. You could start small, maybe, watch a werewolf movie or something, drop a hint here and there and see what he thinks about it. If he doesn't freak out maybe you could go a little further into it. And if he really doesn't believe it, you could always Change."

Outside of the full moon, when they had control over themselves, the Change could be a beautiful thing. Kiyo thought Gris particularly handsome in his wolf form, having recently seen it for the first time himself. He remembered Gris's silvery coat, the points of snowy white. He was a gorgeous wolf. Kiyo found it hard to believe that anyone would find Gris repulsive or undesirable even in his shifted form.
Greer Grayson 11 years ago
"True...” Gris murmured thoughtfully. He supposed Kiyo was right. He had always intended on telling Josh; he wanted his boyfriend to know the truth. Despite how scary he thought that talk would be or what wanting to tell such a personal secret meant about his feelings, it was obvious that he had already made up his mind on at least the first point.

The when part was more difficult. He could get the whole thing horribly wrong by blurting it out. Gris suspected that explaining that not only did werewolves exist but that he was one was not the kind of situation that should be handled like a band-aid on a wound. Just ripping it off, or in this case jumping right in, seemed like an incredibly horrible idea.

Kiyo somehow made the situation sound romantic; trusting his lover with an important secret. In the story he was pretty sure that Josh accepted such an admission with shock at first and then grace and dignity when he realized that his beloved was still the same person he had fallen in love with.

Only people weren't always so open minded and Josh might not yet be to the 'in love' part.

Gris smiled at the rest of his friend's secrets.
"I wonder where this third eye is that he has yet to notice it. The tail might also be hard to hide... and if I secretly like girls then its so secret that even I don't know it.” He was amused by Kiyo's creativity. "Of course all those still involves me being human, a mutant in a few cases but still human.”

Gris hugged his friend and said a small 'thank you' for the kind words about his happiness and Josh. "He is very level headed and definitely a good person.”

Kiyo suggested a way to hint at the subject without just coming right out and saying it. "Not a bad idea.” He could wax philosophical on the whole two legged werewolf versus the actual wolf form. Thinking that if werewolves really existed then it seemed unlikely that they all looked like this big humanoid furry monstrosity.

"And then if he gets all crazy I can eat him.” Gris grinned to say he was kidding. He would be the last wolf to eat Josh, in the literal sense, for several reasons. "I imagine that eventually it would come to changing. Hopefully he takes it well.”
Kiyoshi Salinas 11 years ago
Kiyo was glad that his suggestions didn't seem too off-the-wall to Gris. It was hard to figure out exactly what to do when he had been blessed with his own pretty perfect situation. He, obviously, had never had to have The Talk with Evan because Evan had known who and what he was from the start.

Still, it was interesting to observe Gris under these circumstances. Kiyo had not made any suggestions that he didn't think Gris was capable of coming up with on his own, nor had he said anything he thought his friend hadn't considered. So, he surmised, the reason for Gris's wanting someone to talk to was - reassurance? Someone to act as a sounding board and tell him if he was crazy or not? Kiyo had never seen Gris, really, acting with anything less than complete confidence.

But it could be hard when your feelings for someone else were on the line. If Josh reacted badly to Gris's secret Gris would be devastated. Kiyo had only seen them together a few times and his keen senses did not grant him the ability to sniff out emotions but he would have sworn the couple were in love. New love, the kind where they simply couldn't get enough of each other and were still looking for excuses to slip away and touch each other. A kiss here, a caress there. Josh didn't strike him as the philandering sort, or the kind to give his heart lightly. And Gris, well, Kiyo did know Gris and he'd never seen his friend so happy - so content.


"You are still human," he pointed out a little stubbornly. "For all but three nights a month you do everything the way everyone else does. You know, pants on one leg at a time and everything."

Gris confirmed Josh's level-headedness and while that might not have sounded like the most romantic of personality traits Kiyo thought it mattered a lot when you were potentially revealing your werewolf status to someone.
"I think you have to allow for some shock and disbelief on his part," Kiyo said, hesitant to say too much because he was afraid to get Gris's hopes up - but he felt what he felt, so he went ahead and continued, "but I don't really see Josh as the kind to dump you over this. I think he's more inclined to be accepting. Really, Gris. I'm not just saying that because I'm trying to be a cheerleader. I actually think you've got a chance."

He smiled at Gris, trying to lend his words some weight. He'd feel awful if he were wrong but if what Gris needed was someone to bolster his confidence, Kiyo would do it. He really did hope for a good outcome. Sometimes it already felt like Josh was one of them, or should be one of them - part of their group.

He actually laughed when Gris mock-threatened to eat Josh. He held up his hands.
"What you do in your bedroom is none of my business," he teased back before growing serious and nodding once more. "Sound him out about it first," he reminded Gris, "but don't be afraid. You want him and he wants you. Sometimes it really is that simple."

Kiyo shrugged his shoulders, well aware that he was living proof of his own words.
Greer Grayson 11 years ago
"No, I jump straight into mine, both legs at once." Gris asserted. There were things that were different about humans and werewolves beyond the change three nights a month. He didn't age as fast, he didn't get sick but silver was not a fashion accessory that he would choose any time soon. Minor things perhaps, but he wasn't human, no matter how he put his pants on. Kiyo's point was still valid though and perhaps the fact that he appeared human most of the time was enough. Werewolves and humans had more in common than they had differences and at least he wasn't undead and could go out in the sunlight.

That thought made him feel bad for Kiyoshi, or Evan. They couldn't share a daylight date together and even Kiyo's long life wouldn't come close to Evan's immortality. Gris gave Kiyo another hug, this one in silent sympathy.


"You're right. Go slow and think happy thoughts." Gris smiled at Kiyoshi. "This could work. It will work." Josh cared about him and he cared about Josh; something like this shouldn't matter. Kiyoshi didn't know Josh nearly as well as he did and even he thought that there was a good chance that Josh would understand and accept him for what he was and continue loving him, or continue on with their relationship so that they could get to the point of loving each other.

"Thank you, Kiyo. You're brilliant." Gris beamed at his friend and gave him yet another hug. "Now I feel much better and am inspired to dance. Bring your poi and join me." He had been practicing with his almost every gathering, getting tips from Kiyo and some of the other people who spun poi among the VR. He was much better, some had even called him good now but he wasn't Kiyoshi. His friend made the poi come alive, float in the air and dance around him as if by magic. Gris looked like a clumsy novice next to Kiyo but he had fun and enjoyed the shared activity. He had even bought some more poi and now had several sets to suit his mood. Gris was even thinking of getting a set of the fire poi. This was another thing that might be nice to share with Josh. He tended to spin and drum only at gatherings so it was another small part of himself that his boyfriend had yet to see.

Maybe soon he could change that.
Kiyoshi Salinas 11 years ago
Kiyo smiled at Gris's assertion that he was - well, superwolf. Kiyo was half inclined to believe it. He adored his friend.

Hugging Gris back, he nodded when Gris tried to give himself a verbal dose of confidence.
"It will work," he said softly. "If you love him and he loves you it will work."

Because really, Kiyo could not imagine any sort of confession Evan could make that would make Kiyo love him less. And he figured that if the relationship was right, then anyone would feel that way about their significant other. He liked Josh. And he liked Josh with Gris. They were adorable, and even though Josh was practically as quiet as Kiyo it was very obvious that he held Gris in the highest regard.


"Not so much," he demurred when Gris proclaimed him brilliant. Kiyo shook his head, afraid he hadn't been much help, but he did as he was instructed and stood to join Gris.

He lit his poi at the campfire and enjoyed the way they looked as they sparkled at his sides. He happily began to spin them, enjoying the company, loving that Gris had picked up the skill so easily. Their Packmates, as always, cleared away to allow them room to jump and spin in time to the music. Kiyo had been practicing diligently on his beam, with and without poi, and was now able to accomplish many aerial feats while still spinning. He grinned at Gris as they played... if his friend got much better they were going to have to start learning some dual spinning. If nothing else, maybe a new trick or two would take Gris's mind off his worries for a little while.


((ooc: Both out))