Chapter Text
Laurence lie in his bed, staring at the ceiling. They had finally come home. His friends were finally back. Garroth was back. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Something had changed them all. Just thinking about it kept him awake. But he just couldn't stop thinking about it. Garroth and Zane were acting so weird. They hadn't fought at all since they came back. Garroth and Zane always fight with eachother. When Laurence asked what happened to them all they just said they got lost on a hike during their trip. But that couldn't be it. They were gone for months. And, if he dared to ask about Aaron, Aphmau or Travis they just would just look at each other and he could tell they were trying not to cry.
He layed their thinking about it all over and over and over again. The more he thought about it all the less it all made sense. He needed to know what happened to them all. He needed to know what happened to Garroth. He sat up, "I need to know," he said, walking out of his basement room.
He walked up the two flights of stares and down the corridor to Garroth's second floor bedroom. Right before he knocked he heard a noise coming from inside the room, "Is he crying?" Laurence whispered to himself. He gently knocked and opened the door slowly, "Hey, garroth are you-"
Laurence stood in the doorway with his mouth agape. This was not the sight he was expecting to see. Garroth was sat on his bed, he looked up at the boy who entered his room, a look of pure shock on his face. His eyes were red and puffy from crying. The collar of his shirt was soaked from wiping his eyes and nose. But what shocked Laurence the most were the blond wolf ears poking out of his scruffy hair, and the mathcing tail which lay on his lap. "Garroth are those- are those real?" Laurence asked, his voice quivering, "How did I not know about this?"
The two boys stared blankly at each other. Laurence had never felt so confused, and so betrayed. How was he supposed to react to finding out that his best friend is a werewolf? And more than that, he didn't even tell him.
Garroth's mind was running at a million miles a second, frantically flashing through the memories of Starlight and the lodge. How was he suppose to explain this to Laurence? How could you explain all of that to anyone? "Laurence, I- I couldn't tell you about this."
Laurence stared at him flabbergasted. His blood boiled. Another secret. Another excuse. Another cover-up. This is all he had recieved since Garroth came home. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and spoke calmly to the werewolf on the bed, "Garroth, I need you to tell me what happened to you all. Why were you all gone for so long? Why do you and Zane start to cry at the slightest mention of Aphmau, Aaron or even Travis? And about that, Katelyn and Travis left together, but only Katelyn has come home. What is up with that? Because you clearly know. And then there's this situation," he gestured to Garroth, his voice starting to rises with emotion, "Why didn't you tell me that you're a werewolf?" By this point he had started to cry, "Why are you keeping so many secrets from me? Yu know you can trust me Garroth. I'm your besst friend, and I lo- I care about you."
Garroth stood up and walked towards his friend, grabbing hold of his hands, "Laurence I'm so sorry. Ever since the lodge so many things have happened to us. I wanted to tell you everything, I truly did, but we were all sworn to secrecy. It has killed me not being able to tell you. But you deserve an explanaition and I think I need to tell you."
They stood there for a moment in another akward silence. Garroth realised he was still holding Laurence's hands, "I- uh, I think you might want to sit down for this." Garroth let go of Laurence's hands and walked over to sit on the bed, Laurence following close behind. "Ok," he let out a sigh, "this is going to be a lot to take in, so I'm just going to go from the start. It all started at the lodge."
"The lodge! Garroth that was over a year ago. You,ve been keeping this all secret for over a year!" Laurence's voice rose to a shout.
"Laurence please. Just let me get this all out," Laurence nodded slowly, "As you know last winter I went to the lodge to clean it up for mine and Aaron's parents. And well, things started to go downhill very fast." He paused for a moment and continued to tell Laurence about all the events that occured at the lodge. He told him about the strenge wolf pack and the girl who walked with them. He axplained the situation with Kim, the ghost, and Zane. Then, the forever potions. He told Laurence about how Zane was under the control of a potion which altered his memory to forget about Garroth and replace him with Ein, and that Lucinda was under the same control potion. He told him about the story of the ultima and how Aaron is the successor of the curse. When he finally got to the night at Ein's cabin he started to tear up, "she was forced to kill him. She cut him with a knife. She cornered him at the edge of a cliff. And all I could do was watch him fall."
Laurence, looked at him concerned, "garroth you don't have to."
"No, I want to. I need to tell you." Garroth took a deep breath and continued, "I walked back to the cabin alone. I felt so distraught, so defeated. I couldn't save him. I couldn't save Zane. I couldn't save any of them."
"Garroth, it wasn't your fault." Laurence comforted him.
"I know, I know. Anyway, I had been back at the lodge for a while, just trying to work out what I could do. Then suddenly Aaron of all people walked through the front doors. He was covered in cuts, bleeding gashs. He should've been dead. But somehow he miraculously survived it." Garroth told Laurence about how they worked with Kim and the ghost to bring back Lucinda. Then how they had to choose two out of three potions to bring back Zane and Aphmau. "I told him he could use the emeralds on the potions for Aph but he used his on Zane's instead. He chose to give her up so I could have Zane back." He was actually crying at this point, but he kept going. "I got Zane back. The potion worked perfectly fine. Aaron had gone to find Aphmau but when he did, he saw that Ein had hit her. He was furious Laurence," He explained what he knew about the fight. Of Aaron turning Ein into a human, and then the wolves attcking him, "After that he came back to us and we used the potion on Aph, but it didn't work. He told us to let her go and she sliced him up, verbally and physically. Then he hugged her and reminded her who she truly is. She came back. But Aaron-" Garroth paused to collect himself, "we weren't sure if he would come back. He was out of it for months afterwards. That's why Aphmau and Aaron were apart for the year. It wasn't safe for him to be around normal people."
"Garroth that is horrifying. You just had to witness all of that. Aphmau doing that to Aaron, Lucinda and Zane being controlled, not to mentioned Kim literally being possesed." Laurence pulled Garroth into a hug, "is that when you got turned too?"
"No, that happened on our trip to Starlight."
"Wait... Starlight! The Starlight Wonderland! You said you were on a camping trip! You went to Starlight! and you didn't take me." Laurence looked at Garroth making a pouty face.
Garroth chuckled, "well once I tell you what happened there I think you'll be glad that you weren't invited."
"It was that bad?"
Garroth nodded, "well it started out ok. Those of us who were at the lodge got invited to support Aphmau and Aaron, and to heal from the trauma we experienced. Kawaii-chan ended up there as well, she stowed away in Zane's bag. Then of course Katelyn and Travis were there together. Anyway it was really fun for a while. We had a massive beach house to stay in, went to the adventure park, and then Aaron and Aphmau got engaged."
"Aaron and Aphmau got engaged!" Laurence practically sqeauled.
"Yeah, that's why he wanted to go to the lodge in the first place. Well, as I was saying, they got engaged and we were getting ready to go out for dinner so Aaron could tell his parents and that's when everything started going south." He explained how they walking to the restaurant and Aaron saw Ein, "I was just trying to get his attention. I was just trying to help. But I forgot about his eyes and then he turned around. The pain was instant, I didn't think that much pain was even possible. I should've died Laurence. I should be dead."
"How did you survive?"
"That comes in later." Garroth told Laurence about the Guardian forces, "it wasn't long after I transformed that the Guardian forces came to Starlight looking for Aaron. They raided teh beach house, we barely made it out,"
He explained about the hotel they hid away in and how he had to be careful because they were hunting werewolves. Then he told him about when they got found again, "they stormed into the hotel. We were all seperated. I had no idea if everyone else had gotten away. Luckily I found Zane."
Next he told him about the demon warlock, "Zane and I were trting to hide when we found Katelyn and Travis. While we were there Lucinda expelled the demon warlock from Terry, but then he possed Travis."
He explained the experiments on him and Katelyn, "Because of the potions on us Travis, the demon warlock I mean, was able to tke control of us. That's likely also how I survided seeing Aaron's eyes. But that demon used me, made me hurt my friends."
Then he told him about Ein killing Aphmau, "I was told that she died, her heart had stopped." Then Aaron's rampage, "when Aph died Aaron went beserk. So many people died and I just had to watch while I helped it all play out. It was all part of his plan."
Laurance realised he was also crying at this, "Garroth, I-I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that. I'm sorry all of you did."
"Believe it or not it gets even worse," He tried his best to explain the celestial canon and the relics. Then the fight between Aphmau and the Demon Warlock, "I don't think any of us should've survived, if Aph hadn't been able to wield the relics the demon warlock woud've killed us all." His voice quivered, "But, Aaron gave too much. He forgot everything. He forgot us, his family, even Aphmau."
Laurence didn't say anything. It was all too much. He couldn't believe that Garroth had even been functioning up until this point. He thought that if it were him he might have just given up.
"I just keeping thinking about how if Zane hadn't broken his controll over me I would've killed him. I almost killed him and Kawaii-chan. I couldn't do anything to stop it and I was fully aware of what I was doing. I kept begging for it to stop but it never did. Every night it haunts my dreams. I just want to sleep." He starts crying again. Laurence pulls him into another embrace.
"Hey, it's ok now. You're safe, you're all safe now."
Garroth pulled away from him, "No, not all of us. Aphmau and Travis are still there. They're being monitored and tested after what happened to them. And Aaron, he's all alone again." He looked down at the ground, "I just want everyone to be back to normal."
"Garroth I honestly don't know what to say. You've been through so much. More than what most people could handle. None of you deserved this, no one deserves that to happen to them."
The two hugged and cried together for a few minutes. When they finally broke apart laurence smiled and sheepishly asked, "can I touch your ears?"
"I mean I guess. Be carful though. They're very sensitive."
Laurence reached up and gently stroked garroth's wolf ear, "Oh. My. Irene. They're so soft!" Laurence continued to stroke his friends new ears, Garroth looked at him and smiled. It was nice to finally have a moment together that felt normal. Everything was so different but this moment felt the same as it did before.
Then Garroth did something that he never expected. He wasn't sure why but it felt like the perfect moment. In that moment, looking at Laurences goofy smile as he stroked his ears. Just having him sitting there next to him. He didn't know why he did it but he couldn't stop it. He just leant forward and places his lips on Laurence's.
Laurence stared at him in absolute shock.
"I-I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that. Forget I did that." Garroth stood up, embarrassed by his rash actions. Before he could walk away Laurence grabbed his hand.
"Garroth wait!" He stood eye to eye with his friend and reached up to touch his face, "It's ok," he smirked, "Can you-can you do it again?"
"Y-yes." Garroth pressed his lips on Laurence's again, and held onto him tight. The two of them stood there together savouring every part of the moment. Laurence had been waiting for this moment for way too long. He had spent month's praying that Garroth would come home with him. He had come up with every possible reason why they hadn't come home and why he hadn't heard from them. But it turned out that the reality was so much worse than anything he had theorised.
When they finally broke apart Garroth leaned his forehead against Laurence and quietly asked, "Hey Laurence, can you stay with me tonight? I just don't want to ever be away from you again."
"I don't want you to leave me again either," he chuckled, "It seems like bad things come for you when I'm not around."
That made Garroth laugh, "Sure, whatever you need to tell yourself Laurence," he Joked.
The two boys laid there together, Garroth holding on tightly to Laurence's hand. It was the first time he was slept soundly in so long. Laurence lie there awake for a long while, thinking about everything that had happened to Garroth. He realised that none of his freinds would ever be the same as they were. He looked at Garroth's ears, a permanent reminder of everything that happened to him. But then he thought of the future and all of the possibilities. He felt hope. Hope that everything would only get better from here. They could all finally heal, and he could finally help Garroth to heal. As he thought about the possibilities of the future he felt calm. He felt content. He knew Garroth would be ok. They will all be ok. With that thought he drifted off to sleep, soothed by Garroth's rhythmic snores.