Transformation

[Acorn]

Once he was inside the apartment and the door closed behind him, Leon felt the weight of two empty hands and even as his eyes followed Rita as she busied herself with pouring wine, he fumbled for something to do with them. He slid them underneath his coat hem and hooked his thumbs in his jeans pockets, but that felt stiff and unnatural, so he pulled them free to hang loosely by his sides. His smile was filled with more than a touch of relief when Rita placed a wine glass in his hand because that as at least one of them he didn't have to worry about anymore.

There was a light clinking as their glasses met, and he took a sip of the garnet colored liquid before he nodded and laughed. "Until I got out of there, I kept thinking they'd change their minds and haul me back, but here we are."

And he couldn't imagine being anywhere else, now. Going to a woman's place for dinner on a first date might've felt sudden with anyone else, but it felt appropriate with Rita: he'd been through hell and back with her, all while being recorded and observed by Jenny and who knew who else. They could share a private moment now, not worry about a waiter interrupting a conversation to offer more breadsticks (because in his head, they would've gone to an Italian restaurant).

He took another sip, the alcohol burning a familiar and pleasant path down his throat, then lowered his glass so it was level with his chest and held it there. It'd been almost a month since he'd had anything to drink besides water and the occasional coffee, and he hadn't had anything to eat since earlier in the day. Nothing had hit him yet, but he knew he needed to be mindful and take things slow if he didn't want the wine to sneak up on him and make it so he was a stumbling, slurring mess before he even had a chance to try Rita's cobbler.

"I'm still not real sure what I'll be doing," he admitted. "And I don't think Jenny talked about it, but I wouldn't have heard her if she had. Soon as I got that card I couldn't think about anything but getting out of there. Then when I got out of there, all I could think about was getting here."

 

[Meraki]

Rita was glad for the wine, because she could feel the way it soothed her anxiety. She took a sip and smiled at Leon as he spoke. It was so strange – she expected the world to crumble around them. Werewolves, Lorelei and Jenny, their entire existence thus far had been bred on mortality. They constantly faced fight after fight, endured loss and pain, but this was their moment. A single moment where everything felt normal. It was all so fast, though, that she had to remind herself that this was a first date – but they had been inseparable since he'd arrived at the facility. That had to count for something.

They weren't two bumbling kids, they understood that there was something between them and they owed it to themselves to explore it without the world being involved.

Just the two of them, as much as that scared her.

She knew, in her heart, that Leon would never hurt her. She did not have the battered heart of a woman scorned. She could trust him, could find herself attracted to him and enjoy his company. They could laugh together and she would feel genuine joy. What she was afraid of was hurting him. She was afraid of getting lost in her late night thoughts and convincing herself that she couldn't do this to him, not Leon or Chase. But, she shook those thoughts away and moved to speak with him while she finished with dinner.

All I could think about was getting here.

"Well, you're free to stay here tonight," she said matter-of-factly as though it was nothing at all, but then she understood the possible implications of those words. "I, uh, mean – you know…I figured you didn't have anywhere and I'd hate for you to have to go back to the facility to stay the night right after you were let out. So, I…I'm rambling." She laughed and shook her head, her hand coming up to tuck back a perfectly curled strand of dark hair.

She was so out of her element emotionally.

"But I did took a look at the file Jenny gave me on my way home, and it seems like they're looking at putting us in the field together. So you'll get a gun once we can certify you, credentials, everything – and when I go out to deal with supernatural identification, rogues, anything like that – you'll be with me. Otherwise, it'll be a lot of what I do now minus the public relations. Though, I think you get to come with me to benefits and investor banquets if you'd like. It's a lot of black tie stuff, but the food is always good."

"Here," she hummed as she took a taste of the mashed potatoes, "Stop standing there not knowing what to do with your hands and come try this for me, will you?"

She smirked, her green eyes bright.

 

[Acorn]

Despite his conclusion seconds earlier that he needed to take it easy on the wine, as soon as Rita mentioned staying the night, his eyebrows lifted and he masked the shock on his face by taking a gulp. As she rambled on, the shock turned into amusement that settled into his eyes and the upturned corners of his mouth; it was nice to know she could get flustered and lost in her words, too. He tried to take what she'd said at face value, picture himself camping out on her couch, but try as he might, all he could see was a night that ended with them together in a bed.

Another gulp.

His head had already started to feel fuzzy around the edges, so he was able to cruise by the distracting imagery and focus on what she said next. A gun? They'd give him a gun? He'd thought they only wanted him for his ability to turn at will, but a gun made sense for when he wasn't in his other form, he guessed. He'd have to train with it because he'd never even held one, as much of a shock as that would be to anyone who knew he was from Texas. His grandmother had been an influencing factor in his reluctance to do so, since she'd always preached that there were countless other ways to deal with one's problems, and had discouraged him from hanging out with the sorts that would feel it necessary to use them.

He was thinking about wearing a tux to the events Rita mentioned next, with her in some elegant dress like he'd seen in movies and coverage of celebrity awards shows, one hand twiddling with the edge of his blazer and the other hanging onto his wine glass when she commented on his fidgeting.

"I know what to do with my hands," he protested, but he was smiling as he went to her side to try her mashed potatoes. "Handy things, with fingers and... stuff."

 

[Meraki]

Rita couldn't help but smile.

It was a strange sensation being around Leon. She knew what she was supposed to be feeling – guilt, grief, hurt – but when Leon was around it was hard to not feel completely at ease. Sure her words fumbled a bit and she was lucky that the food kept her hands busy, but she wasn't petrified. She knew that both of them were floundering to find what this meant. Rita had seen it a million times in those action movies Chase loved so much. There was always a female lead, someone who fell for the hero of the story, but everything between them was based so heavily on life and death it was no wonder they always ended up together. Rita just always wondered what happened after, but Chase said that ruined the run.

But how were you supposed to be content with grocery shopping together when you were so used to fighting supernatural entities?

He came over to try the potatoes and Rita moved to take everything out of the oven and off the stove. With quick, nimble hands Rita managed to serve everything and bring them over to the already set table just a few paces from the breakfast counter. It wasn't a large dining table, round and seating four, but they didn't entertain much. She didn't entertain much. She settled down the food, the bowl of mashed potatoes, the vegetables, steaks and left the peach cobbler on the counter to cool as they ate.

"Looks like everything's ready," Rita turned back to smile at him and gesture for him to take a seat, "I hope you're hungry because I have always had a problem cooking just enough for two. I always have more leftovers than I know what to deal with."

She stepped back towards the counter for a second to take the bottle and glass of wine so she could set them, too, on the table. "More wine?"

 

[Acorn]

"Always hungry," he said laughingly as he settled himself at the table. "You should see what I can put away after I've shifted. Johanna got tired of bringing me seconds and thirds of everything, so she just started bringing me two trays at a time." She'd even learned that he'd only eat meat afterward, and had brought him plates filled with all the breakfast meats like he'd get at the shitty 24-hour diner near his old apartment — bacon, sausage, ham. It'd taken a month of nibbling away at the old nurse's hard exterior, but he knew they'd developed something special. She'd swatted his shoulder when he'd mentioned it and muttered something in German at him, but she'd smiled when she thought he wasn't looking.

He accepted the offer of more wine and once his glass was filled again, doled out a little of everything she'd brought to the table. Leon kept sneaking glances at her while he did so, taken each time by how surreal it felt to be eating dinner with her in their current setting rather than the facility cafeteria. They were eating off proper plates, with real silverware (well, not real, real silverware, or he'd be nursing burns on his hands in between bites), and drinking wine. He raved about the steak after his first bite, the first he'd had in months, cooked exactly like he preferred it with a warm, pink center, so it practically melted in his mouth. Everything else was perfect, too, and all the more satisfying because it was just the two of them for once.

Leon was cutting another piece of steak when he looked up suddenly and his knife and fork became still; he'd realized he hadn't said much about anything other than the food and searched for something more to talk about. She was well aware how he felt about the food, he didn't want to talk about the facility now that they were away from it, and they'd discussed a thousand different tidbits about themselves in the long hours she'd spent with him in his containment unit. He was at a loss until he glanced out one of the massive windows that offered up one of the best views he'd had of the city since he'd moved there.

"You ah… You have a great view," he said, then smiled abashedly.

 

[Meraki]

He seemed to enjoy the food and that brought a bit of ease to Rita's beating heart. Rita struggled all throughout dinner to figure out where her eyes should be. She settled on her food but looked up at him periodically as they speak about the food, his words kind as always. Rita could think of a hundred little nitpicking things her mother would have pointed out about the meal, but she had always been that way. It was a hazard of growing up the only daughter of a beauty queen. Her mother was good at everything, but like true southern mothers – no one, not even their daughter, could ever surpass them. The only stress-free aspect of that night was the privacy. It was so nice to just worry about what Leon thought of her, not the wandering eyes of the other Enforcers and certainly not Jackson.

It was hard to find something to talk about, though, when they wanted to stay far away from work and complimenting the meal got old.

Rita finished her bite as Leon spoke and she looked up. She was nearly finished with her food, so at his comment she wiped her corners of her mouth delicately with the napkin and set it down on the table. "It's the reason I wanted this apartment," Rita admitted with a smile, "When I was working public relations, I used to have to travel all the time and jet lag never really gets any easier. I wanted a view that I could look out at night when I couldn't sleep. I spent too much time out on these couches with a glass of wine just watching the world pass by. I never really turn on the television, either."

Chase always had. When she would come home from work, the apartment would be alive. He'd have the sound system playing or the game on the television. He worked normal hours, so he had plenty of time to make himself at home. His jackets were always strewn over the back of the couch, shoes kicked off at the coffee table, and he always had a beer cracked and ready to go. Rita had always been a bit quieter in that aspect – she liked the view, a glass of wine and a little conversation. But when she would come home, he'd always mute whatever he was watching and talk to her.

He'd wanted a bigger place, somewhere with plenty of room to grow, but Rita liked this. She liked their spacious, warm apartment. Her spacious warm apartment.

She took another sip of wine and stood up, walking towards the windows.

"You can see everything from up here," she pointed out with another sip, "It's kind of relaxing. My mother hated it when she came to visit – said too many people could see my business – but it's just high enough up that we look just as small to them as they do to us."

 

[Acorn]

He remained where he was as she stood, listening to her talk and watching her as she moved to the window. Just like the time she'd given him the photograph of her as a child, he felt like he'd been given an opportunity to see part of her life that not many had. She was lovely in her red dress with a wine glass in hand, the city carrying on beneath her without a clue of how profoundly she'd changed his life. Did she even know? He'd said thank you, sure, but how could those two words begin to cover all the times she'd cared for him, pulled him back from the edge and kept him going just when he thought he couldn't go any farther? And more importantly, how could he portray all that without sounding like a complete imbecile?

Leon pulled the cloth napkin from his lap and placed it gently on the table, then stood and followed her to the window. He came to a stop just behind her and then wrapped his arms around her middle (careful that he didn't knock into her wine glass), stepped forward so her back was pressed against his chest, and rested his head against hers.

He breathed in deeply, then released all the air that'd been bundled up in his lungs in a cleansing sigh.

"Definitely relaxing," he agreed.

He didn't need to talk, he'd realized, and risk bumbling everything up. There was plenty enough said when he held her in his arms.

 

[Meraki]

It had startled her at first and her heart near skipped a beat.

Rita didn't hear Leon rise from the table as she was too lost in her thoughts, so it took her a moment to register his arms as they slipped carefully around her. His touch was soft, slow and gentle as he collected her into his arms. His chest was strong against her back. She found herself immediately melting into his touch, as though every single defense had shut down simultaneously. There weren't words for that moment, either, with his head resting against hers and a deep, relaxed sigh expelling from the two of them. It was relaxing, but more than that, more than Leon would ever know – it was healing. In that moment, Rita felt such a lightness in her conscience that she forgot for a moment.

She forgot that this was an apartment she had shared with Chase, she forgot the sound of his voice and could not picture his face. Every single fiber in her body was focused on Leon in that moment. She wondered, for a brief moment, if she was meant to find him. Maybe this was all retribution for what she had endured, but she couldn't bring herself to care. What mattered was that he was there – what truly mattered was that he made her feel whole again, in a way she hadn't felt for so, so long.

Carefully, as not to spill her wine, Rita turned slowly in his arms until they were pressed up together and she could make out his expression. Funny how looking into his eyes could beat any city view. They were warm, welcoming and she felt herself drawn to him as though it were the most natural feeling in the world. She brought her free hand up so that her fingers could trace the strong lines of his jaw before she slipped her fingers into his hair. With a gentle tug down, she brought his lips to hers. It was not timid like their first kiss, but instead it was a slow burn. She knew he would never push her, but she wanted it. She wanted him to know that the kiss in sick bay wasn't just a dug induced haze.

The drugs had made quelling her anxieties easier, but the sentiment was still the same. She wanted to kiss Leon, more than anything.

When she finally pulled away, she stayed hovering just far enough away that she could glance up to him through her dark lashes. "Definitely relaxing," she breathed out, their closeness taking up the forefront of her mind until she was consumed in it, "Not a bad alternative to dessert either."

 

[Acorn]

He felt content while she leaned against him, breathed easier, felt all was right in the world and couldn't think of anything more he might want, but then she shifted in his arms, turned so she was facing him. Leon looked at her, meeting her vivid green eyes and was unable to look away. They were the same eyes that had looked upon him with kindness and compassion when she bandaged and cared for the bullet wounds, the same eyes that creased ever so slightly in the corners when she humored him with a laugh and smile after he delivered another of his bad puns or mistimed jokes, and they were the same eyes that now met his with a heat that made his own eyes widen and caused him to pull a sharp intake of breath as her hand went to his hair.

There was more to be said with a kiss, he realized when she brought him to her lips and they were as warm and soft as he remembered them but hungrier this time. All the doubts he'd still harbored about whether she wanted him there, or if everything had been built up in his head — every single taunting, niggling doubt that Lorelei had planted in his head — flew from him as her lips moved on his and he drew her in all the closer, and he didn't release her when she pulled away.

His mouth still tingling and his chest rising and falling at a butterfly's flutter along with his light and quick intakes of breath, he smiled at her. One arm still looped around her, his palm at the small of her back, he lifted a hand to pull aside the long, dark strands of curled hair away from her neck. Leon's eyes were twinkling mischievously as he lowered his head to kiss a lingering path starting at her collarbone.

"That cobbler looked real good, though," he said as he started up the length of her neck, breathing words and kisses against her skin, "so I'd get it if you wanted that instead. I'd be hurt, but I'd get it."

 

[Meraki]

"I can think of a few things that look really good right now," Rita smirked, "and not even one of them is the cobbler."

Rita forgot her wine and pulled him back to her, her lips catching his as she left him away from the windows and back towards her room. She managed to set the glass down on the table and toss her heels off, but that was the last of the view they saw that night. The next morning, Rita woke surprisingly on time, having managed her first full night of sleep in a long time. It was hard not too when she was out of practice and certainly fell asleep more exhausted than she anticipated. After breakfast and a bit of time getting dress, Rita left her apartment first as not to concern the facility with their activities.

Rita walked into the office that day in a marginally better mood than she had in a long time. Her hair was actually down and done as her heels clicked across the floor. She sipped her coffee and was about to make her way upstairs to get a head start on paperwork, but she felt a familiar touch on her arm. "Rita," a familiar, deep voice called out and immediately Rita found herself a bit frustrated. Jackson. "Can we talk?"

"About?"

"Listen," he said slowly, "I get that you're pissed at me. But I just caught wind that you and the wolf…"

"Leon?"

"Leon are partners now. Alice died and they want to put you with a werewolf? You had no objections?"

"I'm just doing my job, Jackson."

"And you're damn good at it, Rita," he moved a bit closer and talked a bit lower, "You're a damn good Enforcer. Since you came here, you've just been like a bat out of hell, taking care of everyone and everything without a second thought. I just think it's time someone started caring about you."

Rita moved away from him, but he did not give a single inch. "And who exactly would be best for that job, you think? Or better yet, what makes you think that I can't handle myself?"

"Does he remind you of Chase, Rita?" Jackson asked, stepping over a very clear line, "IS that why you just throw yourself at him? He's going to get you killed."

"Get away from me, Jackson," she grabbed his arm, but he yanked back.

"Stop making it so damn hard for me to protect you," he said, "That's all I'm trying to do, Rita."

 

[Acorn]

Leon remained in bed after Rita got up, periodically drifting off again and stirring only enough to tap the snooze button on his phone that was chirping way too merrily first thing in the morning. He wanted more than anything to spend the day with Rita snuggled up against him, all twined up in the sheets and without a thought to the rest of the world, but she'd left him alone with nothing but a rapidly cooling spot in the place she'd been sleeping and instructions to make himself at home. That was all well and good, but she'd clearly meant that he could make himself at home and get ready for work.

Fucking work.

He groaned, grabbed Rita's pillow and buried his face in it, smelling of her and wishing Jenny had let him have the day to adjust to his new life. Granted, the doctor probably hadn't anticipated he'd spend the night at Rita's instead of something practical like clothes shopping.

Leon smiled into the pillow; it'd been worth it.

He dressed in the clothes he'd had on the night before sans blazer, figuring it'd be too dressy for his first day as an Enforcer, ran a hand through his hair in front of a mirror in a failed attempt to tame his wild curls, then breathed into his cupped hand and winced at the smell. There was definitely a shopping trip in his future — Rita had told him he could stay at her place for as long as he wanted, but he didn't have any of the basic supplies he needed to make sure he wasn't a stinking, ruffled mess. He supposed he could disappear into his old containment unit for a moment and at least brush his teeth before he saw Rita again, but the thought of going back in there so soon made his stomach clench uncomfortably.

The feeling of apprehension only increased when he arrived at the facility and caught sight of Jackson and Rita. He didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but every line of their postures made him wary as he approached. As he came closer, he caught the tail end of a comment about him and then he saw Jackson's hand on Rita and something in him rose; if he'd been in his wolf form, his hackles would've been up and his mouth snarled, but when he came to a stop beside Rita, he did his best to keep his face and words neutral.

"Morning Jackson. Rita and I have a lot of paperwork to do." He turned his head to her, then, but kept Jackson in his peripheral. "We should go on up and get started."

Even though he was making his best effort, he didn't think Jackson would.

 

[Meraki]

Between Leon and Jackson, Rita felt impossibly small.

At Leon's quick thinking and comment, Jackson was taken back enough for Rita to take her arm back and step away from him and towards Leon instead. She had no idea what Jackson's deal was, but he had just been getting progressively worse in the past few months. When she'd first joined the Enforcers, he used to make innocent little moves on her when they would all go out for drinks together occasionally, but since Leon it seemed to just more and more aggressive. She wasn't sure what his problem was, but she didn't like it and was thankful for Leon's quick save.

Jackson kept his eyes on Rita, as though giving Leon the time of day was physically painful for him. After a beat, he shook his head and sighed. "We'll talk later," he said finally, "I don't have time to discipline a dog right now." With powerful strides, Jackson turned and made his way back into the facility before he disappeared down a hallway. When he was gone, Rita visible relaxed and shook her head.

"Thanks for the save," she turned to Leon and kept up step so they could follow through on his statement about paperwork. They problem had plenty of it to attend to especially after the last full moon. Too many people to account for, too many werewolves to log for tracking and research purposes. Rita still had yet to log all of her bullets and reminded herself that they would need to go down to the range to get Leon certified sooner rather than later. Something could pop up at any time and while she knew she was pretty damn talented with a gun, he would need some practice.

"I'm not sure what his problem is lately," Rita shook her head and sighed as they came up to her office. Slipping inside, she smiled to see that they had taken out her couch to put in a second desk facing her own. "It's hard to know what he's actually mad about, considering he's near always pissed off."

Sitting in the middle of both of their desks was a few mountains of paperwork and Rita laughed. "But, welcome to being an Enforcer," she gestured to the piles and took a seat at her desk before pulling the first file and eyeing it over. "Each of these needs to get logged into the system and verified. I wish I could tell you that all being an Enforcer involved was giant fight sequences and shootouts, but most of it is just paperwork. Wait until you get a gun, you have to log every single fired round and account for use. That's a real bitch at the end of a long day – trying to remember where you landed twenty separate rounds."

 

[Acorn]

Well, that had gone better than he'd imagined; they'd both gotten out of the encounter with no more than a cleverly worded insult thrown his way by Jackson. His mouth pulled to one side as he held back a snort of amusement until Jackson was out of earshot. Dog? Really? Next thing he knew and Jackson would catch his back turned and snap a shock collar on him and spray him with citronella oil like the misbehaving pet he was.

His smile faded when they started moving up the stairs and she mentioned that Jackson's near constant state of simmering anger had been boiling over, and he remembered how he'd had hold of her arm. He could handle all the insults and mistreatment the man lobbed at him, let it all roll off his back, but that Rita had to endure anything from the man — touch or otherwise — made something dark slither its way into his gut and he frowned.

"Not okay for him to grab you," he muttered after they entered the office. He would've said more on the subject, but he looked between the desks, dismayed. "When I said we had a lot of paperwork to do, I didn't mean it," he said. "I was just making an excuse to get us the fuck out of there."

He watched Rita take a seat at her desk and turned to the remaining one. Normally, a job with a desk would be cause for celebration, because that meant a better paying job than anything he'd managed to hold down prior (though he'd really raked in tips at the restaurant he'd waited tables at, especially from older women; it was no wonder Johanna had finally fallen victim to his charms), but there were folders atop folders and he didn't even know where to start. He sat down at his desk with a sigh dramatic enough that Rita looked up at him from the work she'd already started with raised eyebrows and he cleared his throat and smiled, then broke eye contact and made himself open a folder. He could figure it out. How hard could paperwork be? It was just paper and work.

They'd thrown him to the goddamned wolves is what they'd done.

He'd spent hours going back and forth from his desk to Rita's, files in hand, seeking explanations for weirdly worded shit that, by this point, he was convinced had been entirely formulated just to make their lives more difficult. When he wasn't at her desk, he was at his own, peering at his computer monitor and trying to navigate his way through a multitude of screens with more drop boxes than any program had a right to, calling for her assistance often enough that he was sure she thought he was as inept as he felt. She reassured him it'd get easier as time went on, but he wasn't convinced.

When a call came to her desk and she put it on speaker, he blinked blearily and rubbed at his face with both his palms. There had been a report of a nearby disturbance, and they wondered if they'd be willing to look into it. Rita had hesitated to answer, but he nodded his head emphatically and mouthed "yes, please", and pointed at his still remaining pile of folders, signed a finger gun at his head and pulled the trigger. She rolled her eyes at him, but he was up and on his feet as soon as the call ended.

The night was warm, with a light breeze that instantly soothed his frazzled wits. He breathed in deeply, held onto the air for several seconds, then released it all in a heavy sigh. "I really don't understand how you do that all the time without going crazy," he said as they walked towards their destination, an abandoned office building a few blocks away. "Don't get me wrong, it's way better than rereading the same books in that containment unit, but holy shit."

 

[Meraki]

It was a strange shift in their dynamic. It was not an unwelcome shift, but Rita realized as they were walking that Leon had become so much in her life in such a short period of time. First, they were just friends, but after the kiss and Alice's death – they'd slept together and were now patrolling the streets together as partners. It felt natural packing a small drawstring bag with sweatpants for Leon if he needed to change and she didn't even think twice when they both walked out of the facility without anyone stopping them. He was really a part of her life, a large part, and she didn't even remember giving her walls the permission to let him in – but they did. Her tired and broken heart clung first to him and then to everything he was. They hadn't put a label on anything, but she knew what this was.

And it almost made a bit of guilt pool in the pit of her stomach.

"I'm just a fast reader," Rita shrugged, "Worked PR for so long that I just got good at paperwork. I find it relaxing, though. Always have. We had this hammock at my parents' house and I used to lie out there with my textbooks and study for hours undisturbed. It's nice to give my brain a break."

"You get used to it, you're just learning," she laughed, "no one is good at it the first time. There's also far more paperwork than there usually is. After the werewolves got out, there's so much liability paperwork and subject files we have to go through and re-log. It gets crazy."

The two of them talked as they walked into an abandoned office building. Before she pushed through the front doors, Rita pulled her gun out and checked to make sure it was loaded. She wasn't a fan of killing anyone, but she had to defend them if something were to happen. "Alright, listen," Rita explained, "It's going to be really tempting to change the minute anything goes wrong, but just be aware that we don't know what or who we're dealing with. If there are humans involved, hold back and I'll give you a signal."

"For now," she smiled with a bit of a teasing look in her eye, "just stand behind me and try not to get shot, yeah? With your track record, I'm worried."

Pushing the door open, Rita moved in first and kept her gun drawn low, as not to startle whatever was here. It was dark, but the light from the windows filtered in and revealed a shadowed lump by the far wall. On the floor was a dark pool of something, but Rita didn't have to look too close to see that it was blood streaked. Taking a few careful steps forward, the sight came into better view and Rita saw what looked like a grown man attacking a lifeless body in his arms. Attacking? No.

Was he biting her?

Rita leveled her gun and called out firmly, "Step back."

She saw a flash of bright eyes cut through the darkness, a snarl in the air and the overwhelming stench of blood. Coppery. The body in his arms fell uselessly to the ground, the victim's wide eyes stuck open and Rita knew she was dead. There was just so much blood pooled on the ground around her, streaked all over the man who stood tall. In a split second, he moved and the next thing Rita knew, she felt an arm around her neck yank her back and she reacted quickly. She slammed the put of her gun into the man's groin and managed to knock herself out of his grip, though she could still feel his hot breath on her neck. He made another move for her, but her gun sounded out quickly. One quick shot to the thigh, right on target, but instead of crumpling there was no sound and he kept walking towards her. Stalking prey.

"Son of a bitch," she muttered under her breath as the man moved and cleared Rita back until she hit the wall with his hand on her neck. "Leon," she choked out, doing her best to break free from the powerful grasp, "I don't mean to rush you, but any time now!"

 

[Acorn]

He sputtered when she made a jab about how he'd been shot before and shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't believe she'd stoop so low. "Yeah, well, with your track record I'm worried," he retorted, then grinned. She still wouldn't take responsibility for the bullet he'd been hit with in the shoulder, claiming there was a distinct difference between being grazed and being shot. He still called bullshit.

Leon followed after her, staying behind her as instructed and taking cues from her on how quickly he needed to move (very slowly) and what he should be looking at (the thing she pointed a gun at). Even before his eyes had fully adjusted to the dim lighting, Rita was moving forward again, calling out to the shadowed mass. He took an involuntary step back when the shadow split and a man rose, and then moved faster than his eye could track to Rita. He'd barely processed that she'd been grabbed before she extracted herself and fired a shot. He, too, expected the man would drop, but he kept moving and Leon's face fell.

At some point between realizing they'd been planted into a horror movie with the deliberately slow monster walking towards a beautiful woman and Rita hitting the wall, Leon recognized that something more than bullets were needed to take the guy down. They needed a werewolf. Some ridiculous part of his brain thought to remove his clothes first because he didn't want to shred them, but there were so many hindrances; buttons down the length of his shirt, buttons on his jeans, and shoes with laces. He looked up at Rita when she called out his name, and his eyes went to the cause of her strangled words — a hand around her throat — and all his thoughts went to her and making the man stop.

He'd been practicing shifting of his own accord, so when he began the transformation, it was only a span of heartbeats before his mouth had been filled with sharp teeth and his hands became hooked claws. He threw himself at the man, catching him fully in the side, forcing him to release Rita, and sending them both tumbling to the ground. There was snarling— guttural, feral sounds coming from both of them, and he pinned the man, both his hands on either shoulder and one knee in his middle to keep him from squirming around, and lowered his muzzle to growl at him lowly. But he was stronger than Leon expected, and he pulled free and grabbed him by the back of his furred neck and lunged up to sink his teeth into his shoulder. Leon yelped at the sudden flare of pain and turned his head to snap at the mouth still latched onto him.

Abruptly, the man released him, his face screwed up in disgust, blood pouring from his open mouth. His blood. Motherfucker. Leon tried to renew his hold on the man, but he was as slippery as an eel and wiggled away, propelling himself backward with his feet, gagging and spitting, then righted himself and was gone.

Leon snorted and stood, his clothes hanging off him in tatters, and then turned to Rita.

 

[Meraki]

Rita wanted nothing more than to help, but she was not too proud to admit that in that moment? She was more of a hindrance if she stayed in the middle of the fight. Her bullets were useless, she was strong but that did not change the fact the man was incredibly strong. When Leon knocked him away from her, Rita fell gasping to the floor for a moment. She reached up to feel where the hand had a bruising hold on her and she took a few deep breaths. Some women stayed home and lived as good housewives, but Rita was always in the middle of it all – the mess. Realizing how useless she was to the fight, she moved to the woman who had been attacked.

Her clothes were torn from a struggle, her hands raw from where she had tried to dig her nails into her attacker and the concrete floor. There was still blood seeping from her, surrounding the two of them in a macabre halo. Rita pulled medical gloves from her back and slipped them on so she could feel for a pulse and check the source of bleeding. There wasn't a pulse she could find, but judging from the blood flow she would have had to have died shortly before they got there. Or maybe when they arrived, but it was hard to tell. Rita moved towards the source of the blood and moved to see not just one bite mark on her neck, but various marks that had torn and mangled the skin.

What the fuck was going on?

Rita turned her head when she heard Leon yelp, but everything was so fast. One moment there was blood and in a flash the man was gone, leaving Leon, Rita and the body of his victim. A woman who couldn't have been any older that Rita. She picked up her phone and dialed in to the facility, "I need a team to our coordinates. One casualty."

When Leon turned to face her, Rita peeled her gloves off and tossed them on the ground. She moved to him, clothes hanging off his body and it was amazing to her how little fear she felt approaching him. They had come a long way since that first transformation. "Thanks for the save," she smiled, reaching back for the drawstring backpack and pulling out the change of clothes she'd packed for him. She set them down and moved to take a look at his shoulder. It wasn't gushing blood, but it was certainly bleeding. "We should get you back so we can bandage that up," Rita said kindly, her fingertips moving through his fur in a slow comforting motion. "And talk to Jenny – I've never seen anything like it."

"I can turn around if you're still shy," Rita teased, trying to keep the air light and her mind off the corpse just a few hundred feet from them, "Though after last night, I'm not sure why you would be."

 

[Acorn]

He did nothing more than tilt his head so he could follow the path of her fingers, despite the draw he felt to pull her into his arms. First, it would probably be weird for them both if there was any snuggling while he was in his other form, and secondly, he knew with his luck he'd accidentally nick her with a claw and then she'd kick his ass for making her a werewolf, too. His shoulders lifted and fell jerkily as he laughed at her teasing, and it was an odd, snuffling sound coming from his long muzzle.

The last time he'd shifted in front of her, he'd forced himself away from her to curl up, crippled by the pain and without a single desire to share the process with anyone else. This time, he remained where he stood as his bones reformed and dark fur made way for olive-toned skin, his eyes fixed on hers. The process was so fast for him now that he barely registered any pain, and once he was back to his human form, he caught her up in his arms and leaned down to kiss her deeply. When he pulled back, his expression told of a desire to do nothing but experience what they had the night before right there, body in the corner and all, but his brain kicked into motion and he made himself take a step away from her.

"You think I was shy, huh? I was just protecting your decency," he said, smiling as he swooped down to retrieve the pants and shirt she'd set aside for him. He pulled the remnants of his old outfit off and tugged his pants on, not bothering to turn from her. He'd started to pull his shirt on, too, but his shoulder flared pain and he held it in his hands instead; they'd just make him take it off again, anyway, when they bandaged him up.

He gazed past her to the body with a frown marring his face, then looked at her again. "You've really never seen anything like that before?"

 

[Meraki]

His transformation had scared her once, but it was easy now.

Rita knew, without a doubt, who Leon was under all that fur and those claws. She was beginning to recognize him, too. The minor differences between him and the other werewolves she'd seen began to stand out and she was certain that she could pick those eyes out of a crowd. What she didn't expect was the way he moved without hesitation to take her in his arms and crash his lips against hers. She melted into his touch, dug her fingertips into the familiar dark hair, before they pulled away and he left her breathless. Maybe his animalistic instincts were just too strong post-transformation, but she didn't move to question it. Instead, she let herself bring her mind back to earth and she looked up at him.

A smirk found her lips.

"How noble of you," she laughed, "but I can assure you, my decency doesn't need protecting."

As he stood, she took a closer look at his shoulder. It could be easily bandaged, but it was a deep puncture that was sure to ache. He left his shirt off and she didn't blame him, though she secretly cursed him for kissing her that passionately and then flaunting around with his chest out. With a deep breath, she turned back to see the corpse in the corner. Rita felt like an omen of death some days, genuinely. Clearing her throat a bit uncomfortably, she set aside her personal feelings and turned back to him. "Never," Rita shook her head, "Her hands and knees were torn up from trying to get away, but nothing was broken. She wasn't bruised or beaten in anyway, just a bite that hit right at her carotid artery. There were plenty of smaller bites, but that puncture wound was deep enough to clean slice it. She would've bled out in two…maybe three minutes tops."

"Which explains all of this," Rita motioned for the streaks of blood all over the floor. "He was strong, too strong to have been entirely human." Her hand went up to rub uncomfortably at the pulsating pressure on her neck. She wasn't sure it would really bruise, but she could feel the redness of her skin from where the man grabbed her.

"But it was definitely him," she nodded, "The bite mark on your shoulder matches the ten or so on our Jane Doe, here. Whatever killed her, tried to kill us, and is now running out on the streets."

"I just hope Jenny has some answers before someone else gets hurt."

 

[Acorn]

He listened to her appraisal of what'd happened to the woman and felt a pang when he thought about Alice, about how likely it was that she'd died in the same way. Her throat had been ripped out by a werewolf, certainly not the clean marks that Rita spoke about, but she'd surely had an artery torn and there'd been just as much blood on the floor. He hated himself for it, but he was consoled by the fact that things had ended quickly for her.

Two, maybe three minutes tops, like Rita had said, and her life had been over.

His eyes were drawn to Rita's hands as she touched her neck and his thoughts went to the man's fingers wrapped around it, crushing her words and perhaps her life too, if they hadn't been able to get him off her. He sighed and reached out to run his free hand down her arm starting at the shoulder, and had stepped forward so he might press a reassuring kiss to her cheek, but there was movement at the door and it opened, then a team of four Enforcers poured through, broad shouldered and scowling Jackson at the head.

He dropped his hand but didn't move away from Rita. Fuck Jackson. If he had a problem with how close he was to Rita, then he could damn well physically pry him from where he stood. Given the man's glower, it had occurred him to try, and Leon's jaw muscles flared. Before anything could be said or done by either of them, though, Jenny appeared.

The doctor was dressed in a lab coat over a knee-length dark blue dress, her brunette hair pulled back in what he assumed was a painfully tight bun, and her heels clicked smartly as she bypassed them all and crouched near the woman. She pulled on gloves like Rita had and prodded gently at the woman's neck, then uncharacteristically, she cursed; it was soft, under her breath, but he'd definitely heard her say "fuck".

Leon looked at Rita, his eyebrows raised, and then back at Jenny when she waved a dismissive hand at them without turning around.

"Rita, Leon. You may leave," she said tersely. "We will take it from here."

 

[Meraki]

Suddenly, Rita was drowning in testosterone.

Jackson stormed in at the forefront of the Enforcers, his eyes trained on her for a split second before they targeted Leon. She could have sworn she saw his chest puff and she couldn't help the aggressive way her eyes rolled in her head. Leon stayed close to her, but it was very clear that Jackson wouldn't be happy until the two were torn from one another indefinitely. Rita turned her attention to Jenny as she clicked her way over to the body and muttered something incoherent before shooing off Rita and Leon. It was a curt comment, quick and cutting, one Rita did not expect. She wanted to ask questions, to pry deeper, but she could tell it wasn't a good idea. Not with the was Jenny's eyebrows furrowed. She didn't even pay them a passing glance.

Something was confounding her.

"Alright," Rita agreed, though it went against every single cell in her body. She placed her hand on Leon's bicep to gently tug him after her though she was sure he would follow anyway. She did not greet Jackson, instead she walked out of the building with Leon and made a b-line for her apartment. She didn't really speak much as they walked, but kept her pace quick. "I can bandage your shoulder when we get to my place," she told him quietly, "I just don't want to talk about this in the open."

When they finally got to her apartment, Rita moved to the bathroom to pull out her first aid kit and settled Leon on the couch. She knelt on the cushion to be tall enough to reach his shoulder, her hands quick and gentle as they worked. She had no idea how to articulate what she was thinking, but Rita's mind connected dots quickly. "I think I know what it was," she admitted finally after disinfecting and starting to lay the bandage down. With a better look at the bite mark, she was almost certain. "I have never ever seen anything like that and Jenny seemed pretty quick to get us out of there. What if it wasn't a werewolf? This is going to sound like the stupidest thing I've ever said, but after chase, my whole world opened up to the possibility of supernatural creatures."

"What if it was a vampire?" she asked, dead serious. "Strong, quick, drinking blood? If it was some kind of cannibalistic creature, we would have seen full bites. Even with Alice, the wolf didn't take little nibbles like that – I've never seen this before because it's never occurred to me before."

"The real question is," she hummed, "is why Jenny wouldn't just tell us and shooed us away from the scene. What do you think they're hiding?"