Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? -open-

Posts : 56 Join date : 2011-06-13 Age : 66

The pain like glass tearing his flesh struck him the second the sun started its descent down the horizon line. The wolfsbane potion, while thirding the original pain level of the threat of transformation still had long to go before he could forgive the nasty taste that even after over thirty years, Romulus had yet to be accustomed to: such pain were the taste buds of a gourmet. He dismissed detention early, much to the relief of the student who thought writing 'your mother' as every answer in their test.

He did not even bother a coat for his trek to the the Forbidden Forest despite the definite chill in the air and his general hatred of any sort of cold. It would had at worst been destroyed or, at best, been slobbered on. Romulus hummed as a way to distract himself as he walked deeper and deeper into the wooded area to distract himself from the sharp twinges of pain beginning to become more frequent. He had to make sure he was deep enough to ensure no detection and risk his job, his family and everything he had been fighting to keep since that fateful night where he was first bit.

Deciding he was finally under enough cover to guarantee no one would find him, he undressed, not wanting to destroy his clothes. The Italian man did not want to go back to Hogwarts as naked as the day he was born! Okay, it actually wouldn't bother him at all except perhaps charges of indecent exposure that may happen if he had perchance ran into someone.

His train of thought was interrupted as the moon, that tauntingly full and beautiful moon, made its appearance in the sky causing a yowl of pain as he felt his skeletal system forcible shift from man to wolf.

Admin Posts : 285 Join date : 2011-05-01 Age : 30

He had heard the warnings and the cautions multiple times before, from any number of people - his parents, his teachers, even his grandfather had warned him against this course of action. And normally he would go along with the warnings and forget all about this. But he knew when the best time was to pick certain plants, and that time was now, during the full moon.

Lovino knew almost everything there was to know about the full moon - the schedule of its rising, it's different properties during the different months, the number of times it rose a year, and how it effected various plants and animals. He himself often felt more violent when the full moon was in the air. The only thing he didn't understand was the why - and, in his opinion, he didn't need to know the way. That was for others, people who focused in moon based potions.

All he needed was the basic potions - with some moon effected ingredients - and that was why he was out here. At least, that had been why. Then he had spotted his grandfather striding towards the forest, seemingly without a care in the world, completely disregarding the warnings he had given Lovino about being careful and watching out for werewolves.

Narrowing his eyes, Lovino followed him at a distance to see what he was doing. He knew that Romulus often made potions of his own, so it was possible that he was just going to get ingredients. But he had also seen Romulus' order forms - he always always always got his moon effected ingredients from someone else, he never picked them himself. So it couldn't have been that.

Ducking behind a very large tree when Romulus stopped, Lovino scowled as the man got naked. Really? What was he doing now, performing some sort of ritual? Lovino wouldn't put it past him really. And then the transformation started.

The younger Italian had never seen something so disgusting before. The bones moved under Romulus' skin as he suddenly hunched over and his skin thickened, hairs poking out at a rapid rate. It was enough to make a faint person feel ill. Only Lovino's work with farm animals kept him from getting sick, though he did turn pale at the sight.

And, despite having never seen anything like it before, it felt beyond familiar. It felt like he should have recognized it. But he didn't know from where or why. He didn't even want to really acknowledge that it was happening. Ducking behind the tree as it finished, Lovino tried to stop any noise he was making.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2011-06-13 Age : 66

His pants and desperate gasps for air slowly but surely morphed into the usual slow, steady breaths Romulus found eased himself into feeling slightly more comfortable in his lycanthrope form. He felt old. Beat up by the transformation forced upon him by the moon and bad decisions made in his youth. If only he choose to leave his friend along that night in Romania. Romulus was lucky to have escaped with his life but at the time, he felt as if he would have been far better off dead. Ah too late to reminisce now.

He stretched to his full height as a wolf before looking over his form. Thick, unruly fur that echoed the hair that was mostly on his head as a human, patches of grey scattered sporadically that he couldn't hide in this form and well hidden scars from his years of the forced transformation and attempting to deal with it. Though, truthfully, as werewolves go, both forms had minimal wear and tear. He let out a yawn, exposing the sharp teeth that came with the transformation. Good thing he had made sure to eat before going out, otherwise, he would be tempted to pursue that enticing scent of stag in the air.

That wasn't only smell. Romulus' nose picked up something quite different from the smell of deer. Something familiar and something, or rather, someone who really should not be here. Along with the light whiff of fear and perhaps disgust. A quick trot to behind a tree answered his questions and confirmed his worse suspicions. What did Romulus do wrong to deserve this? To have a secret he fought to keep for over thirty years, one of the few things he loathed about himself exposed to someone he never, ever wanted to even suspect anything was amiss.

Didn't Lovino ever listen to the warnings he gave the boy since he could understand? He even sent him away when. .well, Romulus didn't want to dwell on that or even, to tell the truth, acknowledge it. Maybe Lovino was stupid. Very, very stupid. Romulus was near tempted to snarl at the boy but he couldn't bear to do it. The kid was probably terrified and that was something he vowed never to do to his family.

The wolf locked eyes with the young man and tried to fight to urge to bolt. Instead, he kept eye contact, probably looking scared himself because, to be honest, he was. Was he going to treat with with disgust? Horror? Kill him or at least try to? Or, maybe, maybe there was a chance he wouldn't. A slim chance but the best one to dwell on nonetheless.

Or perhaps the best option was to bolt. And that he did.

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And of course Romulus would be a furry fuzzy wolf - Romulus was a furry fuzzy human. It only made sense. Taking small breaths in an effort to calm himself down, Lovino moved so he wasn't looking at his grandfather anymore and scowled. His grandfather was a werewolf. One would think that Romulus would have mention something about this, but no. Romulus had been completely silent and Lovino was sure that Romulus would have loved to have kept this secret to his grave.

Shaking his head, he tensed as Romulus appeared in front of him. Staring at him, Lovino noted the gray hairs sprinkling the wolf's body and felt a brief surge of smugness at the fact that Romulus wasn't really as ageless as he made himself appear. The smugness went away when he noticed the angry look in the wolf's eyes. Right, werewolves. Weren't really known for being kind to humans.

To be honest, Lovino didn't really know how to react to this. He was being calm at the moment, but that was most likely because Romulus couldn't yell back while wolfy. But mostly, the younger Italian wanted to ask so many questions. He wanted to know the whens and hows, the whys... Lovino wanted to know everything.

Lovino jumped and scowled as Romulus suddenly ran away, watching him go. That stupid little... He snarled loudly. "Coward!" He called after his grandfather, the unspoken barb hidden in the volume.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2011-06-13 Age : 66

Instead of being too afraid to speak and letting the lycanthrope be, letting this this all be forgotten, of course Lovino called after him. And with an insult at that. Seriously, he thought Feliciano, bless his heart, was the dumb one. Who the hell insults a werewolf in wolf form nonetheless? Especially since Romulus couldn't exactly communicate at the moment.

While keeping his distance, not trusting Lovino, he turned to face him. He gave him the closest facsimile of a glare that he could manage in his present form. After a while, he sauntered so there was a mere yard of distance between them and then, he didn't turn his back on his grandson. Romulus really, really didn't want to deal with this at the moment or ever to be honest. He was no fool despite his usual behavior as one. He knew that at least 40 percent of wizards wished for the excinction of werewolves, especially unregistered ones such as himself.

Giving a long suffering sigh, he sat near Lovino's feet. Maybe he should trust him. He didn't seem the type to blab his grandfather's condition. Of course, he did seem the type to question and he wasn't exactly able to answer anything at the moment. Hopefully, he'll just accept it. Of course, it may be a too much to ask that when he himself wished not to acknowledge it.

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Lovino decided that he was simply spending too much time with Daniel lately. He never used to be so recklessly stupid, and then Daniel started being stupid and it must have rubbed off onto the Italian. He would have to kick the Hungarian teen tomorrow to get back at him for this. At least, so long as Romulus hadn't bitten him by then - though Lovino didn't really think that his grandfather would. The school wouldn't let him teach here if he wasn't on the potion, so he was just going along with that logic in hopes of it actually being right.

He watched Romulus come closer, glaring at the look on his face. The older Vargas was acting like a kicked puppy - Lovino almost wanted to kick him just to make it fit better. But that would be even stupider than calling a werewolf a coward. Crossing his arms as Romulus paused, he scowled darkly and leaned against the tree. "You know, I always thought that families shared the important things with each other. Apparently you and I have different ideas on what families are meant to do."

Looking away from Romulus as the wolf sat near him, Lovino growled faintly and glared off into the distance. "You're so fucking stupid, you know that? I just figured that Feliciano was a mutation, but I guess not." He huffed. He was going to ignore the fact that Romulus couldn't reply to him.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2011-06-13 Age : 66

It would have been less irritating is Lovino had attempted to kill him or even burst into tears. That he could deal with, even as a wolf. But, no, he had to talk or rather, talk at him while he couldn't reply in a way that the boy could understand. There were many a reason why he never told anyone in the family, save his late wife, about his condition and being lectured at was a footnote on the list. Not just lectured at, insulted as well! as the patriarch of the family, the 'alpha' in a way, he couldn't stand for that! Not with his pride at stake or anything else.

As soon as the Italian insulted the way he headed the family, he pounced on him. Not to hurt him if the boy wasn't a wimp but enough to scare him into shutting up for a bit. After the pounce, he licked his cheek to assure him he meant no actual harm. Damn, communication sucked when you didn't have access to proper vocal chords for the matter.

He couldn't tell him anything. Not the potential pain of alienation, the thought of being feared by those most precious to him, being treated like a monster. Then again, he also didn't have to cover up a lie that he didn't register with the Ministry as a werewolf. That part worked well in his favor.

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Lovino grunted as Romulus pounced on him and shoved him into the tree, arching his back away from it instinctively and scowling. The scowl deepened when his grandfather licked his cheek. "That's disgusting, don't ever do that again." Wiping the spit from his cheek, Lovino tried not to think about the fact that he often got cuts on his hands from cutting up the various ingredients he used. Even if there was one on his hand now, that certainly wasn't enough saliva to turn him.

Speaking of potion ingredients, Lovino still had to go get those. He tried to wiggle away from Romulus, glaring when the wolf proved too heavy to be moved. "Get off, I have stuff to do. I didn't come into this forest just to catch your dirty little secret." Though that had been a secondary concern when following his grandfather.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2011-06-13 Age : 66

With those words of encouragement, it was all Romulus could do to resist the temptation to cover his face in slobbery wolf kisses. Along with being a wolf, the Italian was a bit of an ass. Of course, the latter was to his delight while the other was to shame. Of course he had to nuzzle the kiddo before even thinking of complying and letting him go. Part of it was to make him squirm, the other part was to assure both Lovino and himself that he was relatively harmless when on wolfsbane.

With a whine, he rolled off his grandson and continued his former action of just staring at him. Of course, it was unsaid that the older man would be keeping a close eye on Lovino both in the Forest and out. He was wary to say the least. Yes, it would be very much not appreciated by the younger but he had to. Not just for his safety and job but to make sure there would be nothing to trigger any sort of memory of when th unspeakable happened all those years ago. He was never certain if he managed to close the blinds that time or not, it was a panicked blur.

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And then Romulus decided to nuzzle him. It took everything Lovino had not to push him away. Touching of any kind made the younger Italian feel itchy, and he hated that feeling and he hated the fact that it actually happened to him. Running his hand over the spot Romulus nuzzled and glared down at his grandfather. "You're an ass, you know that." He shook his head and headed off to find the ingredients he wanted. He did make sure to check his pockets before going though, to make sure that Romulus hadn't knocked his ingredients pouch onto the ground.

Finding one of the things he wanted, Lovino knelt down and began to cut the flower. He didn't need to keep it alive, he just needed it to be relatively fresh when it went into the potion. And since he would be making the potion tomorrow - taking advantage of another night of the full moon - he wasn't too terribly concerned that the flower would shrivel up and die in that amount of time. He completely ignored the fact that Romulus was watching him work, not really concerned with what the old wolf was doing.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2011-06-13 Age : 66

Upon seeing Lovino nearly twitch in his skin as a result of the snuggling, Romulus gave the wolf equivalent of a laugh. Ah, that was so worth it. Then again, as funny as his grandson's aversion to touch may be now, it leaves some serious questions about his future; like would Romulus even live to see great grandchildren? Between Feliciano's sweet cluelessness and Lovino's touch aversion, he was starting to have doubts. That was a discussion for another time though.

So the kid had a purpose behind going into the forest and actually wasn't initially following him he noted as he watched the young man cut a flower with care. That's right, he was rather involved in the art of Potions, he had forgotten that. In future, Romulus would head out deeper into the woods or try to wiggle into the Shrieking Shack to avoid running in to him or dio forbid, anyone else. Once deeming Lovino's activities innocuos enough, the lycanthrope let him have his space as he himself noted the smell of a hare. Not something to eat much definitely good to amuse himself. Perking his ears, he tried to catch signs of it moving about.

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Romulus had just laughed at him. Romulus was a fucking moron - Lovino would have given anything just then to stab his grandfather and make him scurry off to lick his wounds. Yes, in the long run that was a terrible idea, but at the moment it sounded like the best damn thing Lovino had ever heard. It was actually taking a lot out of him to not stab Romulus with his pruning scissors. Some would say that Lovino was too violent - Lovino just thought that morons needed to be put out of their misery.

Shaking his head, Lovino carefully placed the flowers into his bag and stood up, turning to see Romulus doing... something. Honestly, he had no idea what his grandfather was attempting to do. Instead of ask though - since he wouldn't get a satisfactory answer - Lovino simply walked deeper into the forest in search of the other ingredients he needed.

Posts : 56 Join date : 2011-06-13 Age : 66

As he was a man and therefore, a wolf of impulse, he sprinted after the ever so enticing smell of rabbit. It was healthy for him to expend as much energy he could in this form anyway. The more he wore himself out as a lycanthrope, the easier it would be to fall asleep once the moon set. Unfortunately, given the time of year, that meant he wouldn't be sleeping until morning. Good thing he scheduled his classes after noon.

After a brief sprint, the Italian cornered the rabbit and started to play with it. Nudging and carrying it in his mouth as gently as his teeth would allow. When he became bored of that amusement, he dropped the thing only to have it stare at him, stunned. With a growl, Romulus more than encouraged it to run away and that it did.

Once that amusement was over, the Italian went back to where his eldest grandchild was. Problem is, the boy had moved. Sighing, he followed Lovino's scent deeper into the forest and watched him work for a bit. Suddenly, Romulus was struck with a beyond brilliant plan! Grabbing a stick in his mouth, he messily scrawled out a 'hey' on the ground and waited as patiently as he could for the boy to see it.

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