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Chapter Text

Kaito Momora did not hate the full moon, unlike what his attitude towards the day might have you believe.

He just found it annoying from time to time to have to cancel plans after finding out that that was the day when the stupid bright celestial body was at it's full power.

He also didn't find it stupid on most days, but currently he wasn't in a very good situation so the moon would have to forgive his ramblings.

Kaito didn't mind being one of the moon people, even if it wasn't exactly his choice to become one. More of an accident really. A big accident that left a visible crescent moon scar on his shoulder where he was bitten. He'd long since accepted his position and what he was.

Although he though being a wolf was actually really fun, but that though didn't help him right now.

His body burned with nervous energy as the day slowly gave way to night and the moon's call echoed in his brain louder and louder. He'd been so worked up about the whole killing game situation he completely forgot this was coming until it slammed into him like a truck full of bricks. This wasn't good, this was, in fact, terrible. If anyone saw him as a wolf, if they realized it was him, he'd be in a big heaping spot of trouble. People would fear him, and that went against everything he stood for.

Then again, them not realising it was him might also be bad as an appearance of a wolf with no explanation could cause panic.

Though he supposed it was good he wasn't a born wolf. Those, oh boy, those were monstrous beasts. An appearance of one of those would descend this group into chaos. He was a made wolf, so he was relatively small, as small as a werewolf with his base stats could get honestly.

Maybe if he just locked himself in his room? No, that wouldn't do him any good, not really. Wolves needed to roam when it was the full moon. Had to burn off the energy, some of which he was feeling now along with an unbearable need to pace.

Yeah, as restless as he was right now, he wasn't gonna fair well locked in his room.

He supposed sneaking into the courtyard and spending the night there wasn't such a bad idea. As long as noone got up to anything shady at night noone would see him.

Yeah. He'd do that then.

...........

Around 12 pm was when he actually got out. At that point his nervousness and restlessness wasn't his to controll and standing upright felt Wrong. He hoped he waited long enough for everyone to retire for the night.

The courtyard was silent as he walked slowly through it. It was almost eerie. His joints ached as if ground together with every movement he made.

At some point he sat down on the grass to just stargaze. He had time to kill till the wolf would emerge. He sighed.

Something moved out of the corner of his eye.

He turned to see what it was and was met with golden eyes. It took him a little bit to process that it was their resident detective, Shuichi. Both of them froze. Why was he here? Did he follow Kaito from the dorms?

Why were his eyes like that? They were odd, he couldn't quite place what was wrong, but there was something, definitely.

This was bad, his plan, as basic as it was, counted on there being noone in the courtyard. It wouldn't be long till he turned, and that would just be bad with the detective here.

"H-hey" Kaito managed to croak, his voice low and not-strictly-human.

Shuichi didn't look like he'd heard him. Well, in that he didn't move at all as acknowledgement. He looked on guard and worried, mirroring what Kaito must've looked like.

There was a noise, like a dog's whine, it felt uncomfortable and almost in pain, and Kaito almost didn't catch that he wasn't the one making it.

There wasn't time to think about that however, as the pain in his body crushendoed, burning just under his skin and spreading through his joints, echoing dully through his head. This was a horrible time for this to happen, part of him though. There was another person here. He would be scared.

There was a noise but at this point Kaito didn't even register either what it was or what it came from, his whole being concentrated on Changing.

...........

His head cleared somewhat as he lifted himself onto his four feet. The night wasn't as dark anymore, which was a plus. He shook himself off and breathed in the night air and it felt Good.

Wait, he had something that needed doing before he could relax. He shook his head to clear it additionally, keeping his rational mind up and running for just a little while longer, and looked around, trying to locate the small-ish figure of his classmate.

He didn't find quite what he was looking for. There's a... shape. A dark shape, wolf-like in nature, with black tangled fur covering it from head to toe. It's not lifted itself off the ground yet, but it is stirring as if going to do so in the near future.

The problem is that this shape is huge. Easily twice what Kaito is right now, if not more. It's monstrous, and Kaito found himself making a cautious step back as it's head rears up to look at him, golden eyes shining brightly in the darkness of the courtyard.

No way.

Kaito made an inquisitive growl, still cautiously hanging back as the monstrous wolf stood tall just a little bit away from where he was.

No freaking way, there couldn't be Two werewolves in this stupid school.

Not only that, but, unless Kaito's eyes were tricking him big time, Shuichi was... a born wolf? Had to be.

Oh good lord, this was a mess and a half.

...........

His joints felt like someone took a hammer to them and he could barely breathe as the night grew darker. Just a little more. He'd have to wait just a little more, the fresh air of the yard soothing his senses.

Shuichi had his eyes closed and controlled his breathing carefully. In, hold, out, hold, in... He found it helped with the aches as the moon called.

Noone had to know he was a monster. If he was quiet noone would find out.

They'd hate and fear him if they knew. It didn't use to bother him as much, but in an enclosed environment like this it was that much harder to hide.

There were footsteps. Shit, who-

He turned silently to see Kaito walking slowly on the grass. Ah, yes. How could he forget.

He knew that Kaito was a child of the moon of course. The smell was hard to miss, for him at least. Seems like he had the same idea as Shuichi. The man in question sat down, looking to all the world as if he was sick, his movements jerky and painful. And Shuichi could understand why, he himself felt like that.

He made to get up but it seemed like the movement alerted the other man because he turned quickly to face him. They froze. His eyes looked more human than wolf, though there was the glowing quality to them. Shuichi's own must've looked a lot more inhuman.

"H-hey" Kaito offered a forced, pained greeting and he could tell it wasn't long till they both turned by the wolf dripping off of his voice. His own vocal cords were, unfortunately, not made for talking anymore, so he could not offer a reply.

Moments dragged out. A particularly sharp pain in his ribs made him let out a whine, which had absolutely no human left in it.

Moments later he saw Kaito spasm and fall to all fours. It was fine, that was normal, he himself mirrored the movement just moments after.

Change hit born wolves harder than made wolves. He used to think it was unfair when he was a child. Now, as he writhed in pain, his body slowly restructuring itself into something horrifying and monstrous, he hoped that the man just a few meters from him didn't feel the same agony he did.

...........

Coherent thought returned to him slowly and lazily. The last of the pain was just dissolving and he let himself rest a moment, feeling the cool grass under his form.

He could hear Kaito get up and shake himself off. As much as he'd enjoy just going to sleep he had to get up and face the music. He stirred and slowly got his paws under him to get up.

He turned to look at Kaito. He was Considerably smaller than Shuichi himself, so a made wolf for sure. He was lean but muscular, short purple-ish fur covering his form, a slight 'mane' on his head that looked a lot like his usual hairstyle. His eyes looked the same as they did minutes prior: human but just slightly wolfish.

Kaito took a step back, somewhat alarmed. He guessed that the smaller wolf didn't expect being met with the monster that shuichi himself was. He could understand.

There was a inquisitive growl. The detective-turned-wolf took a bit to think of what to answer. He didn't want to come off as threatening, or hostile, which was hard in the form he took.

A movement caught his eye. A gentle, almost apprehensive tail wag. Kaito looked at him, curious now, less on guard, less afraid. Shuichi answered in kind, letting his tail move gently in a friendly manner.

The purple wolf took a few steps forward, his tail wagging slowly but rhythmically behind him. Shuichi stood in place, wagging his own at the same rate.

Next there was a series of small, distinct noises, growling and whining in a specific pattern. Question, but not purely, more asking for confirmation. Inquisition into identity, but gentle. With... huh, with some politeness markers in his voice and stance? Did the situation really warrant those? Though, now that he though about it, it was to be expected, etiquette wise. Kind off.

Wolf 'language' if it could be called that, wasn't extremely complicated. It was intuitive for the wolf mind, so it wasn't hard for the born wolves to learn the ropes quite early on. On the other hand, it was quite hard to learn as a human, on the account of a difference in mind and body, the latter definitely not being built to make the sounds.

There have been cases he'd heard of not-turned humans learning it before. They were rare.

Made wolves had some of their own difficulties with it. Especially when the action of their turning was accidentall, which there were enough cases of.

But none of this mattered. Kaito evidently knew it well enough, so he was taught properly, even if it was slightly rough around the edges. The 'sentence' was something in the vein of both 'who are you?' and 'is that you?' at the same time, so he knew who he was but had to confirm.

He answered, a confirmation, a polite tone and some projection, to confirm what he meant. It was just a vague projection, something akin to what could be called telepathy. Some vague images of his human form, stuff like that.

Kaito replied with some confusion, shock, question. There was an anxious tone to it, something a human would take as nervous laughter. 'I never could have guessed' is what it vaguely translated as. He found this odd. Moon children could normally tell who was or wasn't one of their own pretty easily. Shuichi tilted his head in question. Past time clause, pinpoint of a moment, inquiry, confusion, 'Couldn't you tell when we first met?', Positive clause 'i could'

Kaito answered awkwardly, embarrassed? Nervousness, slight confusion, admittion to mistake 'sorry, i made a mistake' possibly 'i though it was me'.

Ah, he mistook his wolf essence for his own. Understandable, if odd. He supposed it was fine, counting the fact that they were in a very stressful situation, mistakes like this were normal. He could see the other wolf was embarrassed. Positive clause, affirmative tone, gentle tone 'it's alright, it's not your fault' there was something akin to a smile on his muzzle, his tail wagging in a friendly way. The smaller wolf looked up and also smiled.

...........

'How long ago did you turn?'

Kaito sighed at the question. He was still slightly embarrassed by somehow not noticing a freaking born werewolf in their midst. That was a genuine brain lag and he didn't like it at all. But still, the man in question didn't seem to mind. '7 winters' he answered, struggling slightly on the number. This wasn't a language that did numbers very well. He was almost sure even born wolves weren't that great with numbers. Maybe they were. Whatever. 'Accident'

He saw the bigger wolf nod in understanding. 'Who turned you?' He asked

He made a small, very blurry and vague projection of the man in question. 'Friend' he twitched at the memory. It wasn't... the most pleasant one in all honesty 'didn't mean to, it just happened' the scar on his shoulder, covered by fur at this point, twinged with pins and needles, just slightly.

There was a small silence as they just stared at the sky sitting side by side. It was peaceful, almost tranquil. He didn't feel as restless now. Maybe it was the presense of another moon person beside him, maybe it was something else. He was glad.

'He is a born wolf' like you 'stuff happened. He taught me the rules'

'That's good of him' the detective answered with a sigh 'should take responsibility' wow, that was a difficult word.

He hummed a non committal positive response 'is your family wolves too?' he asked

'Yes. Both parents and aunt and uncle. Born wolves' there were some vague projections. He sounded... nostalgic? Born wolves were more inclined to live in packs. They didn't exactly have to, but they normally liked to live with other wolves.

'You miss them?'

He was silent for a moment 'Yes' the 'word', the growl, felt sad. The general vibe felt sad. Nostalgic. Kaito got up and nudged the bigger creature gently in the shoulder, to the latter's surprise.

'It's ok. We won't be caged for long!' He reassured 'you'll get back to them soon'

The black wolf looked taken aback, but huffed a positive noise.

'Yeah, relax. It's the lady's night' the bouncyness, the restlessness was back. His inner wolf brain wanted to play, and it apparently didn't mind the fact that his playmate was in a different weight class entirely. But wolves were generally happy creatures, werewolves at least, unlike what the folktales tend to paint them as. There are of course exceptions, but it seemed to him that both of them weren't ones.

...........

They played almost till morning. All the usual full moon games, wrestling, even though that was slightly awkward for Kaito and did not last all that long in the account of his opponent being like 2 or 3 times bigger thank him, racing after eachother, a primitive version of tag, as much as wolves could manage. They had fun.

They spent so much energy as well, though it was fine.

Kaito didn't think about the aftermath till it actually happened. He woke up in his room, he barely remembered how he got there, almost completely spent. The morning announcement was way too loud and annoying and he'd nap for just a little more.

He idly wondered how Shuichi was doing. Born wolves got hit by the change harder, didn't they? That's what his friend said. Did he feel as miserable or was it somehow worse? He hoped it wasn't.

This particular hope was pretty much in vain. While the detective was at breakfast, chatting idly with Kaede, he looked basically dead. His response times were slowed, the bags under his eyes were deeper and he in general looked like a truck had run him over. Kaito cringed invardly at this. That's an oof.

Shuichi caught his eye and smiled weakly, waving in greeting. While the smile was very tired he could see that it was genuine. Kaito answered in kind.

In these circumstances, wolves had to stick together. It'd be best for them to talk it out afterwards. But for now they could just keep their interactions to these small things.

That was enough.

Chapter Text

Kaede, notably, didn't like to be left in the dark if she could help it.

And now Shuichi was hiding something from her and it worried her deeply.

The conspiratorial look he gave to Kaito was obvious to her, even if it was barely noticible. Something was going on and she was being left in the dark and it made the knot of anxiety in her stomach worse.

He'd trusted her before, notably with his insecurities, what was different now?

He looked like he hasn't slept for weeks, even though just yesterday he'd looked better. Somehow overnight the bags under his eyes deepened and his overall energy went from maybe an ok amount to a worryingly low amount. What could have made such a drastic difference in such short a time?

Kaede didn't know and she hated not even having an idea. She looked at Kaito as he chatted with Maki about something. He didn't look extremely healthy either, not like he was when they'd met him, though it wasn't as big a difference, but it could be attributed to the circumstances they were in. Not sleeping a lot under the threat of a killing game was understandable.

Still.

He knew something she didn't. Something. Shuichi also knew.

She'd have to find out what that was.

...........

She had just finished talking about one story or another when she discovered that in the midst of her talking her conversation partner has seemingly fallen asleep. During some other moments in time she would find this rude, but considering how Tired the guy was the entire day she supposed she would let it slide.

He was kinda cute like that. His head rested on his hands, semi-upright, like he was trying to pay attention but lost the battle. His hat only partially covered his eyes. Stray rays of sunshine played over his black hair. He seemed relaxed, peaceful.

She considered what could be happening to make him this tired, and how it could involve Kaito.

They weren't close, not really. From what she could tell. Shuichi was a very shut in person and he only really opened up to her, and Kaito was very brash and quick to act. It worried her a little bit, and it probably worried the detective too.

The latter stirred slightly and opened one of his eyes, gleaming gold in the sunshine. It was a pretty sight, she wasn't gonna lie to herself. Realizing he'd fallen asleep he snapped upward out of the relaxed position and shook his head "sorry, sorry, i kinda dosed off, i didn't mean to-"

"Hey, hey" she put her hands up in acalming gesture "it's ok, i getcha"

He looked at her, a slightly bewildered look in his eyes, but calmed down nonetheless "sorry, didn't get much sleep last night"

"What happened?" She asked, hiding the worry in her voice.

He looked at her again and she couldn't exactly tell the expression he was wearing. Curious, confused, worried.... scared? And all of that being partially hidden under a mask of unknowing "What do you mean?"

She decided right then and there that being lied to felt horrible. "What happened, why didn't you sleep well, i mean?"

"Ah, just... anxiety" he averted his eyes, and they glinted yellow. It caught her eye for some reason, she didn't know why "i don't sleep very well normally, and here it's worse"

"Ah" she nodded, feeling the knots of something like fear tug themself tightly around her waist "yeah, i get ya. I don't sleep very well myself"

She carried the feeling of dread in the back of her mind for the rest of the day. It was highly unpleasant, but her friend, someone who confided in her with very sensitive information, was lying to her about something. She could tell he was, something about him said it loud and clear.

The problem was that she didn't know how to confront it.

...........

By the evening he looked even worse for wear somehow. She wasn't even sure how that was possible, but apparently it was. He definitely had a headache and by the look of him his joints hurt. She accompanied him to his room, worried that this was some sort of sickness and if it got any worse it might put his life at jeopardy. He assured her he just needed rest, but that did not relieve her fears one bit.

She hoped he would be ok.

The thought of sickness was an alarming one. They didn't have any outright medics in the mix. They had Kirumi, who would know about first aid, but even if she could help with this, who's to say they had the medical equipment to do so?

What would happen if he were to die from it? Who would get blamed for that.

She cringed at the thought.

With a sigh she lifted herself out of bed. The buzzing thoughts of illness mixed with thoughts of the game in her head. It all felt too much. She really needed to calm herself somehow.

Maybe a walk in the courtyard would do it? Their rooms were stuffy and maybe fresh air would put her more at ease.

She opened her door, expecting to be greeted by silence and an empty dormitory.

Instead she saw Kaito, leaving the building.

She silently let herself out if her room and followed him out as soon as he himself was outside.

His figure was odd and slightly creepy against the dark courtyard. She only half considered the possibility that this was a very bad idea.

Something was going on. She had to know what. So she proceeded forward.

She walked as silently as she could after him, at a respectable distance. To her relief he didn't seem to notice.

There was a voice. It was gruff but familiar. "Hey" weak and in pain and foreign, but it was Shuichi. She strained her eyes to see him against the bushes. He was sitting down, arms hugging his knees, turned away from her, just... looking ahead.

Something was wrong with his silhouette, but she couldn't quite get what. He looked like he always did but something... About him... Was off. Maybe it was his pose, maybe it was just the aura, she really couldn't tell. There was a hushed conversation between the two boys that she couldn't hear, so she stepped closer.

Grass shuffled and something audably snapped under her shoe. Both of the boys' heads snapped to look at her and suddenly she felt small and fearful. Another feeling of Wrong hit her hard, but this time she could almost instantly tell what it was coming from.

Their eyes. Kaito's less so than Shuichi's. They were wrong, they were... glowing, slightly for the taller boy and more so for the detective, and there was something.... in them. Something wrong. Something that didn't belong in human eyes.

There was a beat of silence. None of them said anything, they just... stared. Unnervingly.

A shiver ran down her spine. She wasn't meant to be here, this was a mistake. On some ancient instinctual level she understood that. Same instinct told her, no, yelled at her as loud as it could, to just run. She took a step back.

That's when everything exploded.

There were whines, painful and sick, coming from both boys and she felt bad just hearing them, and then the both of them collapsed on the ground, very much in agony. She snapped out of her revery and sprinted towards them, forgetting her prey-like fear a moment earlier, just Worried for her friends and classmates.

She didn't make it far before she realized just how much out of her league this situation was.

Something was happening to them. Something very unnatural and sickening to look at. The shape Shuichi's hands writhed into was horrible. The noises that emenated from Kaito were horrible. It was all horrible. Both bodies in front of her were twisting and restructuring and she couldn't watch. After a moment or so she shut her eyes tightly and covered her face with her hands. For good measure.

And then suddenly everything ended, and there was silence.

She waited. Nothing happened. No noise. Nothing. She hesitantly opened her eyes.

It took her a few moments to catch up on what's going on.

"Wh-What" she must have been hallucinating, because there weren't two human shapes in front of her. There were two wolves. And one of them was a deal bigger than another.

A though strayed into her head. Before any sort of filter could kick in she acted on said thought and was very close to regretting it immediately.

"Shu-shuichi?" She called out weakly and to her horror one of the wolves, the bigger one, responded, by taking a step. It had a bulky frame covered with ruffled black fur and it's eyes glowed unnatural gold. It's face wore a placid, careful expression, as much as a beastly face could.

What the f-

She rubbed her eyes but that didn't help at All, as the vision in front if her was still here.

Has she gone insane or has the world around her done so.

The bigger wolf - Shuichi, she corrected herself - towered over her, but made effort not to look threatening. The other one - Kaito - was a whole lot smaller than Shuichi but about the size of a normal wolf. Maybe slightly bigger. It was mildly hard to tell without a reference, but it wasn't like it mattered anyway.

Part of her mind chilmed in and said that now it made sense. She had to agree, their earlier behavior could be because of... This.

There were two legitimate werewolves in front of her.

It hit her that they were making noises. Mostly at eachother. Like a conversation.

Her head hurt.

"What the hell is going on here" She muttered and Shuichi turned to look at her again. To her surprise he offered an apologetic whine. Like he would like to explain but he can't just now.

She felt mildly mad that he hadn't just told her before, but again, a part of her mind chimed in that people generally fear werewolves. Of course he wouldn't want to share that with anyone. He was afraid how she would react. And judging by that unbearable desire to run away she felt just a few minutes ago, he was mostly right to do so.

She had no case for Kaito. He didn't know her very well, so hw wouldn't have confided in her.

So they only had eachother they could trust with it.

She heard another gentle whine. Realizing she was looking down, deep in thought, she looked back up to find that both of the wolves were closer now, on either side of her. Their movements were gentle, friendly, unthreatening. The detective was bending low to the ground as to not tower over her. He nudged her shoulder with his nose.

Out of habit with regular dogs her hand went up to scratch behind his ears before she ever realized it. Apparently that was a good move as, after worryingly freezing in place for a moment, the big wolf leaned into her scratches, as well as into her side, nearly toppling her over. He looked in bliss, making happy noises and wagging his tail excitedly.

He really was like a big puppy. For the moment at least. On her other side Kaito stood dumbfounded. Though only for a few seconds. Then he was at her side and demanding pets too.

Werewolves love scritches. Noted.

...........

The situation felt Weird and stupid but also serene and fun. She was in the courtyard with her two classmates and friends who also happened to be werewolves. And they were acting like two giant puppies.

What a nighy. She giggled to herself. The two in front of her didn't notice, too caught up in their version of 'tag'.

She had many questions. Namely why were werewolves a thing. But also why the size difference.

As humans Shuichi was pretty frail, about her height, and Kaito was the one more strongly built and a bit taller than either of them. But here... Looking at the monster of a wolf that the detective was there had to have been some other reason for it, not related to their human physique.

These were questions for later. For now she was just glad all was fine. Well.. As fine as it could be. Noone was sick. Noone was plotting something behind her back. And despite the stories werewolves were actually quite friendly creatures.

That was good enough for now.

Chapter Text

Kaito was Tired.

He's had this exact inner conversation dozens upon dozens of times now. Every full moon he's 100% sure he cannot get more tired and that he has never been this tired in his entire life, and that he was probably the most miserable person within a 2 kilometer radius, just because some stupid celestial body decided he had to run around on all fours the entire night and sleep for maybe two hours after.

And having had this inner dialogue that many times he knew exactly how it went, both during and after. He'd lament how sore he felt, he'd consider telling someone about this, complaining maybe, he'd think better of it and either opt to try to go back to bed or slap himself awake and go to class to then have a follow up conversation of how unfair it was that he had to study after running around on all fours for the entire night, it's not like this was a voluntary thing he did.

He'd be having none of this conversation this time, because to his right there was a person who was most certainly having a worse time than him.

Shuichi looked like he'd been run over by a truck when he came into the cafeteria. This time, unlike last morning, more people seemed to notice, and someone (Kirumi?) asked him if he was ok. Kaito wasn't totally sure anyone bought the excuse of anxiety and a low amount of sleep, but no one seemed to object, so he counted that as a win.

The detective took a place next to him, took maybe one sip of water, and then promptly laid his head on the table and fell directly asleep. Kaito saw Tenko giving them both side-eye and looked away from her before she found a suitable enough reason to yell at them. He pushed the rice around on his plate, not quite sure of what to do.

He hasn't seen Kaede yet today. That was slightly anxiety inducing, considering the fact that he was pretty sure their big bad werewolf secret was out of the bag now, even if it was to her and her only. He was sure she'd want to talk about it, to the both of them, yet he didn't know what to say.

For once nothing came to mind. How do you even go about talking about something like that? It's a miracle she took it as well as she did, even if she'd been terrified at the beginning, but how long would this miraculous luck last? She didn't run (he still didn't know Why she didn't but he'll count his blessings and maybe ask her some other time), she stayed, and she petted them, and she played with them to the best of her abilities. She didn't seem disgusted or betrayed or even that afraid by the end of it, like this was a natural thing to be doing.

It really wasn't. He was all too aware of that fact.

He was very aware how humans reacted to monsters like him.

He didn't want to think about it happening here. Last thing he needed, on top of the killing game, was to be shunned. Even if he has only known these people for a few days he still wanted to consider them his friends.

Well. He supposed that if it didn't work out at least he knew he had Shuichi and Kaede in his corner. Those weren't the worst people to be stuck ostracized with.

He couldn't ask for better company than that. He really wasn't in any position to do that anyway.

No. He couldn't afford to screw this up. He'd just have to power through it and never slip up. Yeah. Good plan.

The rice was already colder than what he would prefer but miraculously tasted no worse for it. Kirumi really had a talent for that, or so he would guess anyway.

His eyes panned over to the sleeping form next to him, then to the place of also-already-cold-rice, completely untouched by the sleeping boy in question. He looked really peaceful like that and Kaito felt hesitant to disturb him but the smaller boy Really needed to eat something, otherwise all the nighttime transforming business would chase him into an actual coma.

Well, it would probably take more than one missed breakfast to do that, but still. Sustenance was a must these days. He reached over and gently shook the detective by the shoulder.

The effect was immediate.

Shuichi tensed under his light grip and his eyes snapped open, glowing yellow and alert, pupils contracting to pinpricks in an instant. Kaito froze, locking eyes with him and praying to whoever that he was lucid enough to not change right then and there in lieu of some imagined threat.

In hindsight that was very low faith of him to think like that, but in the moment that was the knee-jerk reaction that his mind went to.

There was a sort of sheen of fog over the detective's eyes that made them hazy that went away as he blinked a couple times. His brow furrowed and the otherworldly glow faded away from his irises as he seemed to wake up more fully.

"Hey, wake up, man" Kaito said, shaking off the thin film of fear that seemed to cling to his skin all of a sudden "you'll miss all of breakfast if you continue snoozing like that"

The other boy blinked a few more times, drawing himself up to a sitting position once more, stifling a yawn on the way "Yeah, ok" He nodded, then added "Sorry, I really didn't sleep a lot last night"

"Don't worry about it too much, but you do have to eat" Kaito reminded him softly, pushing the untouched plate towards him.

"Thanks" He mumbled before going quiet and finally getting to his now-definitely-cold rice.

Kaeded finally showed a few minutes after this exchange, uncharacteristically late but bubbly and optimistic as ever. She took her breakfast from Kirumi with a nod, surveyed the room and, spotting an empty seat on Kaito's other side, beelined towards it. He wasn't surprised at this development, even if it was sorta pointless. Not like they could discuss anything here.

"Good morning Kaede" He waved at her once she'd gotten sufficiently close so that he wouldn't have to raise his voice to be heard above the din of background conversation.

"Morning" She chimed, waving at the both of them. Shuichi weakly waved back, nodding in the way of greeting. The pianist plopped herself down in her chosen seat and turned back towards them "How are you doing?"

"Tired," Kaito blurted out before he could think of a more sophisticated response. It accurately described his state though, so he didn't try to add onto it. Next to him Shuichi nodded once again.

"Yeah, same here" Kaede hummed "it's been a weird few days, it's really hard to sleep"

That could either be about the killing game Or her newly found knowledge of the fact that monsters actually existed and were walking among regular populace.

She seemed cheery enough though, so clearly, at least that last part, didn't phase her that much. Not enough to not seat directly next to two known werewolves.

Honestly Kaito kind of appreciated that, that she wasn't afraid to be next to them. It was comforting.

She was trying for a casual conversation and he was only sort of keeping up. His mind kept drifting. He assumed they were waiting out the time towards when they could naturally leave at which point Kaede would probably corral them somewhere private to bombard them with questions. That was fine. Explanations on all sides were in order, he thought.

His gaze kept drifting about the room, slightly unfocused. He was tired. How long was he supposed to be here again? How long had he already been here? He couldn’t trust his own sense of time for anything, since it sure felt like forever but was probably just about 20 minutes.

Full moons really sucked. Don’t tell anyone he said that, he really didn’t think that way most of the time. Just right that moment it was Inconvenient as hell. Ugh.

He was about to suggest they start leaving when, in his lazy looking around he met someone’s eyes across the table.

He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as a sort of primal fear washed over him with a new force.

Deep red eyes bore into his soul. He froze, for the second time that morning, trying to an unknown degree of success to not let his fear show on his face. He still felt the easygoing smile slip into something more nervous.

Maki didn’t even look threatening, but that look in her eyes, like she knew exactly what she was looking at.Like she could see right through him to his core.

Did she know? If she did, why hasn’t she called him out yet? If she knew about him did she also know about Shuichi?

How Could she know? They weren’t the stealthiest but he hasn’t sensed anyone out at night, so?

“Kaito?”

He paused his train of thought and painfully tore his gaze away from Maki. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her look away as well, as if nothing happened. He turned to Shuichi who was looking at him with just a slight bit of concern.

"Yeah, i'm good" Kaito said, lying through his teeth "just got lost in thought for a second"

The detective just nodded, probably not believing him but keeping his thoughts on the matter to himself.