Part of the Pack

Looks around all of the rooms "Lacey Maleto. Born and raised in Connecticut, but moved up to the city. I'm not huge on celebrating birthdays, I have no siblings, and.... I don't go anywhere in the winter." she smiles "This must have been a whole lot of work for you guys... They didn't have anything like this back where I came from, really wish we had one." she mumbled looking into one of the classrooms.
 
"My parents set it up, actually. I just took over after they passed." He said happily. He had long since mourned the passing of his parents and knew why it happened, how it happened, and had gotten closure, so he wasn't upset about mentioning it at all. "I've added things, like what we've done with the third floor." He walked up to a large cement stairwell and walked up to the second floor. He smiled and looked around. It was covered in toys, mostly things to spark their imaginations. Dolls, blocks, the walls were painted with chalkboard paint and there was chalk almost everywhere. One corner had just empty cardboard boxes, currently set up to make a rather impressive fort. It was a little obvious the pack had helped with that a bit. One area was devoid of toys and the floor looked nice and slick, like it was waxed often to keep it nice and slick.

"Yeah, over there is Fort Brandon....at least, last rain day it was Fort Brandon. I think at the end of the afternoon, someone had kicked Brandon out and made it Fort Someone Else....and there's the ice rink." He said, pointing over to the slick patch. "Well, the Wax floor...they skate around in their socks, pretend they're on ice, pretend they've fallen into an ice cold lake..." He laughed softly.
 
After making onto the top step she gazed in amazement and walked around looking at the chalk drawings, the toys, and the cute box fort "This is so amazing!" she must have seemed stupid "I can't believe this! Its so cool!" she had a goofy smile on her face as she looked over the drawings on the wall, slowly the smile turned to a frown. She bit her bottom lip to get rid of it "I want to leave a note..." she picked up a piece of chalk and wrote on the wall 'Had fun with you all. Love, Lacey.' in bit cursive letters.

She placed the chalk down and took a step back wiping the chalk off of her fingers "There." the smile came back to her lips as she walks back over to Faolan "You guys are incredible. I can't... You all are just... the best!"
 
Her excitement actually hurt him, but he didn't show it. He could just tell she had a horrible childhood.

He smiled at her note. "They'll love that." He turned to her and shrugged. "We aren't all that great. We're just trying to clean up this shit-hole of a city." He glanced up, as if thinking or listening or something, then looked at her. He smiled. "You wanna see what's upstairs, too? There are three floors. I can either show up upstairs, or show you how to sock-skate on the wax/ice."

"Ya know, actually..." He looked at her. "There aren't a whole lot of female influences here...there's Ulfa and that's...that's pretty much it...but we're starting to get more girls around, so...if you ever want to stop by...they uh...they have questions I can't answer..." He reached up, scratching the back of his neck. "Girl questions..."
 
Glanced at the wax floor and laughs "Show me the third floor... That stuff is for kids." she mumbled looking back up at him "Yeah, I can stop by anytime and answer those questions for you. I'm sure Ulfa would have too much fun with that." she laughs at the thought and placed a hand to her cheek "Dear lord, that's a thought..." she shook her head know how straight forward she could be at times.

Placing a hand on his shoulder she made a cross over her heart "I'll stop by on my days off, promise." she gave him a soft smile and looked around "Especially if the kids are always this awesome. How could I say no?"
 
"Well, it's my opinion that if you're straight forward, it actually gets through to them." He smiled and watched her cross her heart. "The kids are going to love that. Thank you. I'll show you the dogs later, just so you're....you're prepared...they're all good dogs. I don't want you to think they're not, but um...yeah, I'll get to that later." He walked back to the stairwell and upstairs.

"So, what we've done with the third floor, is we've...well, we've made the whole place a safe haven, but...if at night, they ever don't feel safe at home, they can come here. We don't ask why, we don't make them call anyone first, we just let them come over if they need to." He walked up and pushed open the first door so she could see the somewhat comfy room with two bunk beds, currently unoccupied and neatly made. "This whole floor, we tore it all out, made the classrooms into smaller...I guess dorm rooms...the one down at the opposite end, that's always occupied. We'll see if he's there later. Chance comes here a lot, too. Mostly when he's too hungry..."

Hearing his name, the boy poked his head out of one of the rooms down the hall. He looked like he was 7 or 8 or so. He smiled and waved a little, then walked out. "Hey, Lanny!" He walked up and held up his arms.

He scooped the boy up and held him. "Chance, this is Miss Lacey. She's going to start volunteering around here."

"Is she part of the pack?" He asked excitedly, before waving. "Hi, Miss Lacey!"

"No, she isn't." He reached up, brushing the boy's blond hair out of his face. "Do you know what that means?"

"Yes." He said with a nod. "It means I can't talk about Sam our about th-"

He gently-but-quickly clamped his hand down on the boy's mouth. "I need to explain to you what 'not talking about' means, don't I?"

He shook his head. "Sorry." He said as soon as his mouth was free. "Are you gonna take her to meet Clyde?"

"Is Clyde down there?"

"Sam says so."

He gave a bit of a sigh and let him down. "Go make Ulfa feed you, ok?" He put the kid down and mussed his hair, pushing him towards the stairs gently.
 
She blinked surprised by the sudden pop up of Chance and smiles "Hey there." after seeing Faolan put a hand over Chance's mouth she looked up at him with an arched 'brow and crossed her arms over her chest, wondering what the secret was but didn't ask. Watching Chance make his way down the stairs she smiled softly "He seems really sweet. Who's Sam?" looking around real quick to make sure to more kids, or even dogs, were going to sneak up on her, "And what do you mean by dogs? How many do you have? Don't tell me you guys also own a dog kennel and half the city."
 
"Oh, Sam's a friend of his that watches out for him." He said, glancing around the room briefly. "But it's complicated." He turned back to her and smiled. "Heh. No, we don't, it's...well, we keep a wolf pack...hence...ya know...the name being everywhere...The Wolf Pack, this is The Wolf Den...you get the idea..." He started walking down the hall.

"Anyway, this is where we let kids stay the night if they want. But you'll need to meet Clyde, since he's here all the time. More often than not." He shrugged some. "But he's not supposed to be leaving until some things cool down..."
 
Watches him and nods "Okay..." she began getting nervous again having to meet more people "Did something happen? I mean... Never mind, its not my place to ask." she absentmindedly looked around the hall as she leans back into the wall "I'm sure everything will be alright and can be fixed sooner than later." with a shrug of her shoulders she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear "So how long has his place been around? From when you were a kid, right?"
 
He nodded. "Yeah, a few years. I can remember, barely, walking around while the construction was going on. Just, the whole gang pitching in. That's how I want to keep it. It's a community thing, too...I want people to know about it. Except this floor, anyway. I don't want to turn into an orphanage...well, maybe...but feeding everyone would be hard..." He shrugged and called down the hall. "Clyde! C'mere!"

The door at the end of the hall opened and a young man walked out, probably 16. "Yeah?" He looked through his long hair and saw Lacey. He flipped his hair from his face and walked up. He was in jeans and a t-shirt, tattoos already going up his arms. He looked like he had seen a lot for a kid his age. "Hi." He held out his hand. "I'm Clyde. Are you a new volunteer?" The tattoos going up his right arm looked like angels and fairies and such, while the tattoos on his left arm were all demons and evil things. He was really young to be so tattooed. He wasn't as excited as Chance was to meet her, but he was being polite.
 
Gently took his hand and gave it a shake "I'm Lacey and kind of... I'll be stopping by when I can." she said with a kind smile "I like your tattoos..." she said pointing to the ones on his right shoulder. "I have a dove, I got it around your age." she said softly "Its nice work. I got mine down shortly after I got to the city at his place down town, there's a bird on the front of the building. Did you get it done there?"

She glanced up at Faolan not sure what he'd think about it and decided to stop talking, nibbling at her bottom lip as she tucked her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and looked down at the floor. She never mentioned her tattoo to anyone, but thought maybe Clyde could have someone to relate to.
 
He did seem to relax a bit. He chewed on his lip ring a bit and held his arms out. "I got...uh...oh." He lifted his head, showing the dotted line with 'cut here' and a small knife that went across his neck. "This one." He said, poking it. "I got this one there." He let her see it, then put his chin back down. He smiled.

The only show of emotion on Faolan's face was concern for the boy. He just hated seeing a kid so young go through everything he had went through. He didn't mind tattoos, it was the pain the tattoos were covering up. "I have a wolf." He laughed a bit. "I'm really creative, I know..."
 
Leaning forward she looked at the tattoo and when leaning "Really can I see it?" she asked looking up at Faolan, but seeing the look on his face she shook her head "Never mind." she glanced around "Maybe I should be heading back home, its getting late." she had been there for a few hours by now and it was a bit of a walk home from the community center, "It was nice meeting you, Clyde." she said holding her hand out to him. After shaking his hand she made her way back down to the classroom to grab her bag. She was never comfortable getting close to people, it never felt right.
 
"It's on my side..." He lifted up his shirt and showed off the tattoo on his right side. It was big and looked pretty painful. "Do you want a ride home?" He asked with a smile, still holding his shirt up, maybe flexing a little. There was some nice muscle on him.

Clyde smirked a little. "I'll see you around, Lacey." He said, waving and walking back to his room.

He watched Clyde walk back to his room, then smiled at Lacey. He dropped his shirt finally. "Come on. I'll give you a ride." He started back down towards the first floor and the classroom so she could grab her things.

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Holstering her bag she shook her head "Oh, no thanks. I'm fine walking..." she smiles looking down as a blush rose to her cheeks wanting to ask him a question "So.. When did you... I don't know, want to have dinner? Or I guess we could just wing it." she gave a shrug making her way out of the room, "For now you could just walk me out." smiling she leaned into the front door's frame waiting for him.
 
He walked with her readily, smiling all the way. "Please let me drive you home?" In the way he asked it, he didn't sound like he was going to push the issue. "And...well, when are you free? I'd like to at least put a clean kilt on, so maybe not tonight...unless you wanted the date to be the burger joint down the road." He laughed a bit. "Actually, burgers don't sound bad right now..." He glanced over at Ulfa, then back at Lacey. "You wanna go grab a burger right now?"

Ulfa smirked, sitting there with Chance up on the counter, feeding him from a bowl of fruit and some cereal. She glanced at them, but looked away. She didn't want to get in the way of her alpha making a move on someone.
 
Opening the door she let herself out, a smirk playing in her lips as she watched him "That sounds good, but don't you have a whole bunch of kids to watch over?" she said looking back all of the kids running around, laughing. Smiling she looked back up at him, "I've never been on a bike before... I don't even know how to ride a bicycle." she chuckles realizing how stupid that must sound and combed her fingers through her hair.
 
"The pack's got it." He said, glancing back at the other guys his age running around after the kids. He grabbed his jacket off a coat rack by the door and slid it on, walking out with her. "All you need to know about riding my bike is how to hold on and where to put your feet. Then just..." He shrugged. "Lean with me when I turn. That's it." He pulled his keys from his pocket.
 
She followed close behind him, being careful to not run into any kids. By the time they got to his bike she stood there staring it down, "I don't know... What do I hold onto? What if I fall off?" she rambled getting nervous, something she couldn't help becoming around him today. "Is it safe? How fast can it go? Does it cost more than a car?"
 
He laughed, taking a helmet out of one of his saddle bags. He handed it to her, then took off his jacket and handed that to her, too. "You hold onto me. You won't fall off. There's a back seat that I hear is pretty comfortable, complete with backrest." He said, pointing it out. It was a really nice bike. A cruiser, not a crotch rocket. It looked stable and...well...safe enough. "Heh...The speedometer stops at 200, but I'm going to be going the speed limit...and naw, it's less than a car..." He flipped the back pegs down, where she'd be putting her feet, and then got on himself. "Just get on it like you're getting on a horse...hold onto me, put your left foot up on the peg, swing your other leg over. I promise, you'll be fine. I've been driving this thing since I was 16 and you don't see any scratches on it, do ya?" Maybe because he covered them up. Not the point.
 
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