"If you try to put a collar on me I will make you regret it," Gotou said, surprisingly calm over breakfast.
Masayoshi furrowed his brow, unable to stifle the third yawn that had crept through in the last few minutes. "I didn't say anything," he said, and figured that if Gotou had telepathy too he probably would have strangled Masayoshi long before today.
"I could feel you thinking it," Gotou muttered.
He'd found Masayoshi very late (or very early) sitting on the swings in the park they often walked to. He'd been dozing off, upright, and almost went over backwards when Gotou had butted his knee with his head.
"It's dangerous!" he had yelled, as soon as he'd shifted back – still naked and fuming. "What if he'd found you, what if he'd hurt you-!"
"It's no more dangerous for me than it is anyone else walking around at night," Masayoshi snapped back – and he'd seen something cross Gotou's face that he didn't understand, couldn't ask because he didn't know. Gotou had snarled – inhuman-sounding still, it made the hair on the back of Masayoshi's neck stand on end, and then Gotou stormed out of the room, the bathroom door slamming behind him.
The shower seemed to have calmed him down, at least, because he was far less prickly when he emerged, in clean if slightly-rumpled clothing and toweling his head off. Masayoshi was exhausted through but Gotou seemed fresh, as if he had slept the night through instead of roaming the city. "Don't you need to sleep?" Masayoshi groaned, one elbow on the table.
Gotou shook his head slightly. "Not around the cycle, not really."
"Efficient," Masayoshi muttered. He rubbed his jaw with one hand. "I don't get why you're so worried," he said. "And if you know this wolf, why won't you tell me about him?"
"I'm not certain it's him," Gotou said, refusing to make eye contact. "I thought he was dead."
Masayoshi's head darted up, but Gotou still hadn't looked up from his food. "It was a long time ago," he said softly.
"Is he the wolf who turned you?" Masayoshi asked, and Gotou lifted his head, and then shook it.
"No. I've never met that wolf again." Gotou stood up and picked up Masayoshi's mostly-untouched plate. "You're exhausted, Masayoshi, you should get some rest."
Masayoshi eyed him. "Are you coming to bed, too?"
"As much fun as that invitation sounds, I have to..." Gotou paused, and then shuffled the dishes so he could tap his nose. "I need to use this, while I have it. He can't stir up trouble in the daytime."
As Gotou retreated into the kitchen area to dump his dishes, Masayoshi got to his feet, pushing through the exhaustion. "Then I'm coming with you," he said, and walked toward the kitchen area.
Gotou doused the dishes, turned around, and ducked under Masayoshi, scooping him up in a sudden, startled move. Masayoshi barely had time to blink, let alone fight back before Gotou deposited him on the bed, slightly winded. "You," Gotou said firmly, "are getting some sleep."
Masayoshi glowered at him, but couldn't stifle another yawn. "Gotou-san is mean," he said, and Gotou put a knee on the mattress and leaned down, nose brushing Masayoshi's as he initiated the kiss.
"Sleep," Gotou murmured, and Masayoshi sighed.
Morning brought with it sunlight, devastatingly bright and surreal after a long rain. Birdsong filled the trees, and when Gotou surfaced in the frigid lake-water he realized that he wasn't alone.
The man sat on an outcropping, where Gotou had left his clothes, watching Gotou with a laid-back expression. "So you survived the night," he said, as Gotou sank somewhat in the water, eyes locked on this new threat. "I'm impressed, little cub."
"This isn't my first time," Gotou said, exposed and vulnerable in the lake. He had no weapons, no defense – and the man laughed at him. His blood boiled, and Gotou started to growl.
"No," the man cocked his head, golden hair falling across one eye – and Gotou saw one of the wolves from the previous night, mottled grey and tan, golden eyes like twins suns. He didn't relax. "You're still new. Where is your sire?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Gotou said.
He sighed, clearly put-out. "Who bit you, cub?"
"Don't call me that," Gotou growled. "I don't know what monster bit me, but when I find them I'll killthem." Deep breath, eyes locked on the stranger. "Just like I'll kill you if you don't leave me alone."
"Tch," the man got to his feet, slowly – golden hair and golden eyes, even long after the moon had set, stranger still – and he waved a hand in front of his face. "I'll ignore that, because you're young. Come find us when you're ready."
There hadn't been an attack the previous night. Gotou exhaled in relief, scrolling through news websites on his phone as he sat at a table in a coffee shop, alone. The morning crush of commuters brought with it a cacophony of sound and scent, things that he had learned to tune out over time.
There was no way to tell by the moon-song of the previous night, if it was the same wolf or a different one. He hadn't encountered the scent again, same-but-different, and it could have been a coincidence.
(He didn't really believe in coincidence, not anymore – but.)
Still.
Tonight was the apex moon. The blooded moon, the one that brought out all the wolves, regardless of their history; the one he tried to keep himself away from Masayoshi. He was better now – now that he allowed himself to touch Masayoshi, he didn't fear losing what little control he had. That led to different fears, of course – fear of losing him, fear of the fact that whenever he allowed himself to relax, to have something nice that it would be snatched away from him as coldly and without explanation as she was...
His cell phone buzzed, and he glanced at the notification. She hadn't contacted him in a few weeks – better all the same, although he did miss her advice – but this did not come from the familiar mail address. In fact, this address had been scrambled, likely spoofed – and all the hair along the back of Gotou's neck went up as the picture downloaded.
It was a wolf, fur patterned golden and white, familiar in a way he'd barely thought of in years. She was sprawled casually across the concrete of a warehouse floor, throat torn out and blood staining the delicate fur.
Gotou's entire being ran cold.
Who is this? He sent the mail with shaking fingers, but it came right back, bounced from the server as undeliverable. Suddenly, the bright sunny morning had lost its luster.
"The second moon is for song," he had said, leaning back and staring at the sky. "For celebration, for all wolves are born anew on the second night, bathed under the brightest light of the moon."