One moment, Kitty had been smelling flowers without even thinking and the next she was sneezing and the shift took over. Sneezing didn’t usually trigger a shift so Kitty was confused. And then made more confused when she realized that she was in control. And tangled in her sleepwear.
A whine escaped her and she considered shifting back to human but that was going to be a disaster with her clothes still half clinging to her form. Going smaller wasn’t the problem. Kitty whined again.
It was the whining that caught Stiles’ attention. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard Kitty in her wolf form, but the now part of it wasn’t right. And he didn’t think there were any other wolves spending time in their apartment. Closing the lid on his laptop as he stood, he stopped in the open door, waiting to see if he’d maybe been imagining the whole thing.
Then he heard it again. Definitely Kitty. Walking the few steps to the end of the hall his eyes moved over the kitchen first before landing on the couch, and the wolf beside it. “So…this is new. Kitty?” As if she could answer him right now.
Kitty's head swung around and she tried to follow the movement with her feet but everything felt off and she stumbled. Well, three other legs kept her up at least. Intelligent eyes stared back at Stiles and she gave a nod. A forepaw came up to try and scratch or paw at the band T-shirt that was caught around her and the motion was far too human. She had said before that she wasn't herself when she was a wolf though she could remember some things after the fact and apparently how to move as a wolf wasn't one of those memories. The instinct was completely different.
She was nodding. Or the wolf version of it, at least. So she understood him, okay. Communication would make…whatever the hell this was a lot easier. This wasn’t how it usually went on full moons. When she pawed at the shirt tangled around her he was snapped out of his thoughts. “Right, okay. You want me to help with that?” Not waiting for another non verbal answer he crossed the space and knelt beside her, reaching for the shirt and beginning the process of helping get it off the form it wasn’t designed for. “If you bite me right now we’re going to be having a talk about boundaries.” He didn’t actually think she would, but it was an instinct to fill the awkward silence with words.
Kitty's ears flicked backwards at the comment about boundaries and she gave him a look that was clearly unimpressed. She wasn't going to bite him. She wasn't the type!
Once Stiles had gotten her free of the human clothes, she huffed out a sigh of relief and shook her fur out. Kitty sat and considered her options, absently setting her paw on his thigh since he hadn't gotten up yet. It was, again, something so human. Oh! There was an idea. Kitty moved around Stiles and went to where she'd apparently managed to set the flowers on the side table near the door, going up onto her hind legs to set her front paws on the table. She looked pointedly at the flowers and then back at Stiles. And then sneezed.
The look made him laugh, because somehow it was identical to something he’d seen from her more than once when she was in human form. He held up his hands, mock placating. “I won’t accuse you of being a big bad wolf again.” The paw on his thigh was proof she was definitely herself right now. This wasn’t like talking Scott down during those first few full moons. This was something completely different. When she moved away he looked over his shoulder to follow the movement, only getting to his feet when she put her paws up on the table.
“Wolf you is allergic to flowers?” He picked them up, twisting the vase around in his hand. They looked like ordinary flowers. But then…how many people had gotten flowers already and had weird shit happen? That wasn’t a coincidence. Not to mention his own encounter with a floor covered in invisible ice. “They made you shift. Great.” And given she’d just sniffed them again and was still a wolf, it looked like the answer wasn’t going to be that simple. “Do I need to go find a handsome prince to kiss you to break the spell?”
It was impossible to explain that she was fairly sure it wasn't an allergy so much as the unfamiliar scent had tickled her nose in both forms. But Stiles understood what she was trying to suggest and Kitty lowered herself back to the floor with a hopeful wag of her tail.
Until he just couldn't ignore the chance to be snarky and suggested a handsome prince. If he were lower to the ground, she might have taken the opportunity to lick his cheek and slobber on him a little. Instead, she settled for another look and made a huffing sound. The whole thing was strange and at least Stiles was familiar. As was his brand of dealing with crazy things.
Kitty was worried about attempting to shift back. If things were already strange, what were the consequences of even an attempt? She looked at Stiles again and moved to press her head against his leg.
“Sorry,” he said when she huffed, not sounding remotely apologetic. He didn’t really know any other way of dealing with this, or this place in general. Since Lydia had been sent home he’d been struggling with how to handle any of it. Getting back into any sort of routine was hard enough, let alone all of this. When she pushed her head against his leg he dropped his hand to rest on top of it, hoping he could offer some kind of comfort through the touch, and that that was what she was looking for. “We’ll figure something out. You want to watch some Cutthroat Kitchen?” What better way to deal with a problem than to ignore it completely?
Her ears perked at the suggestion and Kitty brushed past Stiles to go to their couch. He could work the remote, after all, because he had fingers and a thumb. She did not. Without hesitation, Kitty hopped up onto the couch and sat, tail curling around her paws just a little.
Clearly, it was a good idea. Ignoring the problem while watching some people go through whatever evil Alton Brown concocted? That was an easy distraction.
That was a pretty definitive answer from someone who couldn’t verbalize a response. He’d take it. Grabbing the remote off the table he sat beside her, close enough that he could feel the warmth from her currently fur covered form. He clicked through to the right place to kick off the next episode, looking down at her as he set the remote down again. “Do you need anything right now? The second time Scott did this I gave him a water bowl with his name on it, but that’s because I was mad at him. It feels like it's toeing the line of mocking right now.”
He wasn't wrong and Kitty gave him her best side-eye, which wasn't too difficult. He'd better not do such a thing. It would kick off a prank war of epic proportions, Kitty silently vowed.
But his question was genuine and though it took her a few moments to get to the answer, Kitty shook her head in a firm no answer. She was fine for the time being. She would eventually need to worry about how much thawed meat was in the refrigerator and if anything needed to be moved from the freezer but all of that depended on how long she was in this form and if she wanted to risk shifting back to human. For the time being, she could sink down onto the couch and rest her head on her paws while their favorite cooking competition played on the television. And if her head eventually moved to rest lightly on Stiles' leg, well, that was just about trust and comfort. Pack.
Stiles had started thinking about things like raw meat and what she was actually prepared to eat given she was still herself. That had to be weird, right? Maybe she’d prefer it cooked or something. He was taken back to a time when he’d made jokes with Scott about a werewolf taking the time to cook his rabbit in a little wolfy oven. Things had been so much less complicated back then, even with navigating having his best friend a newly turned wolf.
But for now Kitty seemed content to just sit and watch the progressively more ridiculous things the chefs were being made to do, so he’d go with it. With her head settling on his leg, his hand found its way to resting on her back, and he took just as much comfort from the repetitive action of running his fingers over her fur as he figured she would.
Kitty was acutely aware of how Stiles was unable to sit still for too long and when she judged that he was ready to move but probably not doing so because of her, she hopped down off the couch and gave a good stretch. It was getting easier, picking up pieces of vague muscle memory.
She watched Stiles for a moment and then made her decision. Kitty would attempt to shift back because whatever might go wrong, Stiles was there and either he would help or he'd be smart enough to get out of the way. Probably. God, she hoped he would be smart enough to get out of the way. But she was cognizant enough to know that shifting in the middle of the living room was a recipe for disaster so she looked back toward her closed bedroom door and went to sit by it. Kitty already missed her thumbs something fierce.
He’d fallen into a kind of stupor watching the show at first, not quite falling asleep but enjoying focusing on something not Lydia related. Of course, it didn’t last all that long and soon enough the leg Kitty’s head wasn’t resting on began to bounce in an attempt to sit still for her sake. But in that same freakish way Scott did, she seemed to know what he was thinking before he did, and she was moving.
He didn’t move at first, watching her make her way over to the bedroom door. He doubted she was asking to go in there to sleep, and it took him a minute to put two and two together. “You sure?” The question was mostly rhetorical though, and he opened the door for her. He wasn’t about to stop her if this was what she wanted.
Kitty appreciated the question, rhetorical as it was, because that was the kind of person Stiles was. Since there was no need to answer with the head-nod or shake, she slipped past him and into the room that was at least dark enough to give the appearance of privacy even if the door wasn't shut behind her. If she managed to shift without issue, Kitty could easily close the door and get dressed. She tried not to think about the pile of clothes she'd left behind, underwear included, because it was just the werewolf life and Stiles had to understand that those things happened.
The shift wouldn't come. She thought hard about it, pictured her human form. Nothing. A whine escaped her, just as it had at the start. Kitty wondered if it was because she had never shifted back into her human form. The wolf always had and it was often while asleep and likely not even a conscious effort. Was it because she only knew how it felt to give in to the wolf and not the other way around? Kitty slunk back out and looked up at Stiles with sad, worried eyes.
He waited while she walked into the room, watching without actually watching, because she deserved some dignity in this situation. He wasn’t prepared to shut the door, though. He was prepared to expect anything given this whole situation had been caused by the weird of this place.
What he hadn’t quite counted on was nothing at all, though. He did his best to keep the concern off his face, realizing in that moment he’d never stopped to find out if she could sense his emotions the way Scott could. That was something to ask later. He considered their options, searching his memory for everything he’d read and what might work, when it hit him. “Pain. Pain makes you human.” He quoted his friend, remembering that day in the classroom when Scott had looked ready to attack him. “Would that work for you?”
It was hard for a wolf to look startled but Kitty somehow managed it. Pain makes you human. If that were true, she was plenty human even in the skin of a wolf. That wasn't quite was Stiles meant though she'd gone through Hell, physically, plenty of times as well. How important was it to be in her human form just then? How much would it harm to wait and see if the whole thing wore off?
Or what if she was stuck?
Kitty didn't realize she'd fallen into a little bit of a cower. If she'd been the wolf, it would have been the full blown effect and trying to look as harmless as possible. But Kitty was made of something stronger because of all the things she'd been forced to endure and she tried to shake off the feeling of being afraid. There was the added worry of just how they'd apply pain. She couldn't ask that of Stiles and she wasn't sure what the options were to try such a thing on her own.
“Crap, Kitty. Just…ignore me. I’m just thinking out loud.” He hadn’t meant to make her look so scared. “We’ll think of something else, it’s fine. And this is good, right? I mean, as long as Roey gets along with you,” he joked lamely. His dog was currently curled up sleeping on his bed, and he was pretty confident she’d stay there happily for now.
She felt bad. He had been trying to help and she knew it. Kitty padded forward and pressed her face into his legs because that was the only way she could convey that it was okay. She was okay. He was okay. And they were just going to need to deal with it for the time being and see what happened. At worst, maybe the full moon in a few weeks would act as a reset button.
In the meantime, Kitty was probably going to need to accompany Stiles and Roey for the outside-time because a wolf couldn't exactly use a toilet. And it was lucky that she didn't have cheeks that could burn with embarrassment. Maybe she should just take off, live near the zoo until everything was put back to rights. Kitty pressed a little harder against Stiles, sighing.
Stiles had, naively, been assuming this would all be over in twenty four hours. He should have known just because his experience with the not there ice was done within a day it didn’t mean everything else would be. And now they were on day three of this and he was starting to wonder if the pain idea might have been worth a shot.
Mostly he felt bad for Kitty, though. He’d thought often enough about how different things might have been if he’d been bitten instead of Scott. But dealing with this? There was no way. This was too much.
She was miserable. There was no real way to wrap it up in a pretty little bow in other words or optimism. Kitty played with Roey because the puppy didn't know otherwise and it was easy to wear her out with some rough-and-tumble. Void had retreated to high places or any dark hiding place and there was no real getting around that. Once Roey had been worn out and was sprawled on a pet bed, Kitty got up and shook herself.
What she missed most was the independence and self-sufficiency she'd come to know and love ever since she'd started The Midnight Hour back home. That had been the tipping point. Having to rely on Stiles for such basic tasks like opening a door or contacting the station to let them know she couldn't come in... it was wearing her down. It wasn't in her to just give up. But it was a waiting game and Kitty wasn't even sure what she was waiting for.
As she rounded the couch, she wondered what it would be like to just surrender. Either give in to the idea that maybe she would be stuck like this or give in to the wolf entirely so she didn't have to miss being human. And that was probably the biggest part. She missed being human. Communicating with people, doing everything that had made her feel whole after she'd been brutalized and changed the first time. A tingling sensation rolled over her and Kitty didn't have time to consider what it might have meant. The fur melted away as she shifted and every thought fled.
The first thing she noticed was the colors. Brilliant and vibrant. The scents were duller and the blonde remained on hands and knees while she panted with stress. It was one of her dens, she knew that much, but it also didn't look or smell right.
He was doing his best to give Kitty her space, knowing how much this had to suck for her, but there was only so much space you could give someone when you had to do things like make sure they could get outside when they needed to, or keep them fed. That kind of dependence reminded him way too much of his mom’s reliance on his dad in those final weeks, and that was another thought he didn’t need to follow too closely.
They’d been out earlier that day, and he was idly scrolling through Netflix trying to decide on something to watch when he caught the movement from the corner of his eye. Before he’d quite registered what was happening, she was human again, just kneeling there on the floor not all that far away. Doing the only thing his brain could latch on to in that moment, he covered his eyes with one hand as he stumbled to his feet, only peering through gaps big enough to see where he was going. “Hey. You’re you. That’s great. Cool. I’m just…clothes. You need clothes.”
The abrupt movement and voice caused the human to jump and she tried to scramble backward or just anywhere else in general. Her limbs were completely wrong and her nails were useless. Her back hit something that teetered (table, a quiet voice said) and the woman gasped as it fell and clipped her in the shoulder. Pain bloomed and there was nowhere else to go. The woman's breathing was too quick, too shallow, and she stared at her hands without recognition before she huddled in on herself.
It was the wolf's usual instinct to curl inward when faced with something that scared her. If she looked small, maybe she would be overlooked. It had worked with most of the wolves in the pack, back when she was kept to the lowest rung.
As soon as he entered her room, he was confronted with the realization of what getting clothes entailed. And there was no way he was going anywhere near her underwear drawer and looking her in the eye again, so he did the next best thing and grabbed the blanket tossed over the end of the bed.
She was not where he expected to find her when he got back, one hand still cautiously half covering his eyes. She was huddled up looking terrified, and his own expression morphed into one of concern. “Hey, Kitty.” He took a couple of cautious steps closer, holding out the blanket like some kind of absurd peace offering. “You good?”
The male-human returned but she didn't understand the words. No, she knew some of them. Kitty. (The man who smelled of oil and metal called her Norville.) When she looked up, there was still no recognition in her eyes and they were wild with both fear and something else. He was approaching slowly and holding something. It smelled like her but that was all she understood in the moment.
Her body shook from the stress and the fear and she could smell it on herself already. It wasn't safe to show so much weakness but it was all she had. Submission. She was no threat. Her gaze immediately dropped, refusing to keep eye contact.
Stiles’ mind raced as he took in her reaction and what it had to mean. This was not a better alternative. At least before she’d still been Kitty. He was not the right person to deal with this. This was a Scott sort of problem. Realizing he was getting close to working himself into a panic he stopped and forced himself to take a breath. She really needed him calm right now.
Figuring she saw him as a threat right now he did the only thing he could think of, lowering into a crouch and then sitting completely, watching her warily all the while for her reaction. He’d been joking with the bite comment the other day, but now it felt like a very real possibility, even if she was in human form. “It’s okay,” he tried, not knowing if she even understood him right now. He slid the blanket closer across the floor this time. “I’m not going to do anything. I’ll just sit here, okay?” Hands empty now, he held them up in the universal sign of surrender, all the while studiously avoiding complete eye contact.
When the male-human lowered himself down to her level but didn't strike, she looked up as briefly as she could allow herself. The pile of cloth (she knew that much) had been pushed between them but she didn't know what she was supposed to do with it. It was an offering of some kind, she was beginning to understand, though she didn't know what. And why was he offering her something?
But her breathing was beginning to even out even if it hitched on every third or fourth inhale. She hadn't moved yet and had no plan to since she was still huddled in on herself. And yet the one across from her did nothing that she would have expected. It didn't make sense and she didn't have the capacity to work out why. When she finally gathered her courage to look up at the male-human again, there was a little less fear in her eyes. That something-wild still lurked but she was mostly uncertain.
What the hell was he supposed to say? Stiles scrambled for something intelligent amongst the many thoughts flying through his head. He didn’t want to leave, he knew that much. But maybe she’d feel more safe if he did? Even if this wasn’t like it had always been with Scott, and she wasn’t herself, logic told him there had to be some level of recognition there. She had to at least be familiar with his smell or something. That was what he told himself, anyway.
With the way she was reacting (and barely, at that), he was at least comfortable now that she wasn’t going to react violently. Not that he’d actually thought she’d want to hurt him, but the thought of a naked confused Kitty trying to hit him was not something he wanted to contend with.
“Are you cold?” He tried, gesturing at the blanket. He demonstrated as best he could with his plaid shirt, unbuttoned over his t-shirt as it was, wrapping it around him like it was a blanket to show her what he meant.
That little voice in the back of her mind was supplying her with just enough information again. She didn't consciously understand it but it was helping. Though her reach was clumsy and her grip was weak with the lack of understanding how fingers worked, she was able to eventually mimic what the male-human was showing her. Cold, she understood. She'd heard the word before. The pack would all cram into a safe place to sleep off the hunt and sleep, keeping each other warm.
The blanket felt strange against her skin and she didn't understand why there was no fur. But there was a sort of gentle weight to it that went a long way to making her relax. The scent was her and that helped. She tried to tuck herself under the blanket more, deciding it was close to having fur and that was going to have to be good enough. She went back to watching him, more openly now and with less fear as the time stretched between them. She didn't even know how to run if she had even been willing to risk it so she stayed where she was.
It was probably stupid, but just having her covered up like that went a long way to helping him relax. Maybe it was the fact he felt like he could actually look back at her properly now. He didn’t outright stare, though, figuring that would only freak her out. His thumbs tapped against each other in a constant rhythm where his hands rested in his lap, waiting to see what she was going to do. He had absolutely no idea what to say, now. She looked calmer, at least. The fear wasn’t quite so prominent in her expression. Maybe that would have to do for now.
The instincts were still all wrong and she wasn't sure what else she - or they, really - were supposed to do. There was nowhere to run, to shake this off, and the only other way that she tended to handle a situation was to sleep it off. If she wasn't in imminent danger, sleep would still do her good. Still watching him, looking for any sign that he might change his mind and attack or at least put her in her place, she lowered herself onto her side. Her entire goal at making herself as small as possible was still in place and she ducked further under the blanket now that she'd figured it out somewhat.
A wolf didn't have the human worries. There was nothing running through her mind that was going to keep her from sleeping and her breathing eventually evened out completely into a steady rhythm.
Right up until she jolted upright. Kitty had a blanket and she was naked on the floor of her apartment. She pushed to her feet and winced at what felt like an old bruise on her shoulder but Kitty was more worried about figuring out what had happened. There were sounds in the kitchen and she pulled the blanket more firmly around her as she moved to look inside. She wasn't sure if she was only looking to confirm that it was Stiles (for a moment, she had the thought that it was Sam because of the routine after a full moon) or if she was hoping to launch into a series of questions.
After watching her sleep for a few minutes it had started to feel way too creepy, let alone his aversion for remaining stationery for any length of time. He felt bad leaving her there sleeping on the floor, but at the same time waking her seemed like an even worse idea, so he got up and went into the kitchen. Keeping himself busy making dinner seemed like a good way to pass the time while still keeping half an eye on her.
His cooking skills leaned mostly towards the healthy options he’d forced on his dad, and some of the things he remembered his mom making when he was a kid. Comfort food he rarely actually let his dad have. He was filling a pot with water for some pasta when Kitty suddenly sat upright, and he mostly managed to avoid dropping it in the sink, only some of the water sloshing over the side.
He went straight back to studiously looking anywhere but at her until she’d pulled the blanket back around herself properly. “Kitty?” His tone was questioning, and a little more tentative than he intended, but he couldn’t actually tell yet what he was dealing with.
"Stiles?" she asked, confused. And then it clicked that she was standing barefoot and naked in front of the poor guy with a blanket pulled around herself. It came crashing back for just a moment but that was all it took and her eyes widened. "Aah!"
“I know”, he agreed at her exclamation, not actually making eye contact. Because oh god, that had all just happened. He busied himself with the pot of water, only to pause again when he got the lid on. “Oh my god I know.”
"Oh my god?" Kitty went on though it somehow tilted upward like it was a question. Her eyes went more wide. "Oh my god," she repeated.
“So hey.” He tried for flippant and missed by a mile. “You’re you again. That’s cool. Welcome back. Maybe uh. Clothes?”
"Yeah," she agreed and turned around. "Yeah, clothes. I'll... I'll be right back."
True to her word, she was back in a jiffy with hastily pulled on sweats and a different band T-shirt than what she'd been wearing when she'd first turned into a wolf that week. Her cheeks were red with embarrassment and anxious fingers went to work at braiding her hair simply because she needed something to do. "So, question. Are we going to just agree to pretend that never happened?"
Even with her fully clothed, he still couldn’t quite manage direct eye contact, and sought refuge in preparing the macaroni and cheese. Which really didn’t require much preparation at all. “Pretend what never happened?” He asked as he turned to put the pot on the stove.
Kitty breathed a quiet sigh and felt some tension leave her shoulders. They could work with pretending he hadn't had to see her naked. It was different with Stiles. It was like... family. And they were roommates now so she didn't want to make things awkward, not that she'd really had a choice in the matter.
"I'm so glad I have fingers and thumbs again. And toes. You never really realize how useful toes are until you don't have them. Are you making mac and cheese?" she asked as she joined him in the kitchen.
“Yeah,” he acknowledged, finally looking over at her, even if it was only briefly. This was fine, it wasn’t a big deal. “I figured you might like something that wasn’t raw steak.”
"You figured correctly." Kitty leaned against a counter and folded her arms against herself. At least it was a casual stance instead of defensive and afraid. "So. We're certain it's the flowers, right? Like, by this point."
“Uh, yeah.” He confirmed as he got the cheese out of the fridge. “Definitely the flowers. But that was the only consistent part of the whole thing. Seems like most people got something different.” Except the two people who’d fallen asleep for however long that had lasted. Right now Stiles thought that sounded pretty good.
Kitty frowned, thinking through the words and things she did know. Not that she'd been able to get onto the network as a wolf. Paws weren't meant for phones or keyboards. "Well," she said slowly, "if any more show up, we know to chuck them in the garbage."
"Thanks, by the way," Kitty added, turning her head to watch Stiles. "You know. Opening doors and stuff." And everything else.
“I am done with flowers, that’s for sure.” He probably should have been more suspicious of them in the first place. His reluctance to trust wasn’t exactly being helped, lately. He only paused for a second as he grabbed a spoon from the drawer. That sounded distinctly like talking about it to him. But he got it. “Well you know. No opposable thumbs. You were at a bit of a disadvantage.”
At least she could laugh about it just then, which she did. "I think we need to be glad that more species don't have opposable thumbs. Roey and Void would be unstoppable and then what? Oh, shit, we should probably find Void. Poor thing." Kitty reached out and nudged Stiles. "Dinner's on me tomorrow. Whatever you want. I can actually use a phone now to order in or put in a reservation."
Despite himself his mouth twitched in an amused smile at that statement. They would be impossible. “Pretty sure he’s hiding under my bed.” Roey was asleep on his bed, which wasn’t all that unusual for her at this time of day. With dinner at the point that it mostly just needed to wait for the pasta to cook, he had no other excuse and finally gave her his full attention. “How about that pizza place?” He suggested. It was something simple, but also something that needed fingers and thumbs to eat, too.
Well, he could look her in the eye and that was a huge step for them both. Until Kitty rolled her eyes, at least, because of course he'd suggest something like pizza. To be fair, Stiles tended to worry about healthier foods in general but the fact remained that he could have gone for anything. "I like that pizza place. We can do that. And maybe bring some leftovers back for a late night watching of Cutthroat Kitchen when neither of us can sleep and we end up hungry."
“That works. But I feel like sleep isn’t going to be a problem for you. At least not tonight.” Surely all of that had been a lot of stress for her body to take. Or maybe now that she was back to normal, or seemed to be, she was fine. He’d worry about his own return to not being able to sleep later. Future Stiles was the one who dealt with all the problems.
"Please," she scoffed, "it wasn't like I did a full night of running during a full." But it was also possible that he wasn't wrong and that she'd sleep earlier than usual. It was all about the timing. "I'm going to see if I can coax Void out, if you are amenable. I have some sucking up to do to that cat."
“No, but you did plenty of running around with Roey.” Which was getting dangerously close to not pretending it all hadn’t happened, so he pressed on. “Go for it. You know he loves you. Dinner should be ready in ten.”