It took Grif several days to get back to normal. Or, at the very least, to be relatively close to normal once more given everything that had happened.
He was still very cuddly and affectionate, often snuggling close to the redhead and just wanting to be closer to his mate.
Simmons actually wasn't fighting with the wolven over anything, only attempting to gently coax him into going for a walk or taking part in other activities that would hopefully help to take Grif's mind off of his mother's passing.
Most of the time whenever Simmons' tasks would allow it, they would be lying on the bed-closely huddled together with Grif being unusually quiet and touchy.
Simmons didn't really mind in the slightest. He liked having the wolven close by like that.
Sometimes when they were doing that, Grif would tell him stories of his childhood.
Like what it had been like when he first changed into his human form: when his mom and his dad had been absolutely delighted when he had shown up with his messy black hair, blue eyes, and tan skin with a little bit of chub too. They had been so happy then, he still remembered his mother and father beaming at their child's human form with pride.
They went to the store next with him, buying him his first sets of clothes that he had ever needed and even those he wanted to have no matter how expensive they were once his younger mind had fixated on them.
Simmons carded through Grif's black hair with his fingers, knowing well enough how to get the wolven to relax and let go by this point.
There was the time when his mom was pregnant and had become rather moody as Kai's birth got closer.
Grif long ago had to accept that he wasn't going to be the only child in the pack and that he would have to share his parents' affection with his sister. He didn't mind that truthfully, but he still was a bit jealous.
When the little pup was born, he was allowed to go in to visit his mother and new little sister after his dad had welcomed the newest member to their pack and had gotten to see his daughter for the first time.
When Grif walked in, Kai was drinking milk from her mom—both of them in wolven form. Grif also was in his wolven form, not wanting to freak his little sister out.
He walked closer carefully, first waiting for his mom to give him her permission to approach the little pup.
Female wolvens who had just birthed a pup could be fiercely protective and moody when someone got too close to their newborn without permission first.
Grif was carefully nudging the pup with his nose, flinching back a bit when she whined and snuggled closer to her mother. She growled lightly as though saying 'Watch out!' to her oldest child but still feeling comfortable enough to leave him with his sister.
Sniffing the little baby anxiously, he noticed both the smell of blood and of his mother. He smelled her unique scent underneath, but since she had been born so shortly before the scent of blood and his mom was still overwhelming.
Some minutes later, Grif lied down beside the family group-simply lying beside them and watching the little pup find her way around in her surroundings.
He laughed, saying to Simmons that he still remembered what he thought back then. How he reflected on how that must have been what he had looked like back then about two hours following when he had been born himself. Wondering if he had also been a whining little ball of fur clinging to his mom and then soon trying to find his place in life.
He also remembered, some weeks later as he observed Kai growing up, that when he had been trying to walk for the first time that it had also been more stumbling around and falling on his nose more often than not.
At another time following that, they had been lying on the bed together with Simmons once more carding his fingers through Grif's hair.
It had been a rough day for him.
Simmons couldn't chalk it up to just one event in particular, but he knew that Grif had a bad day in general. He was grumpy, bad tempered, somewhat sad, and introverted when they had met up again at their shared room.
On this day he told him another story of his life back when his pack had still been together and were a happy family.
Sure, Simmons hadn't been a part of the pack then, but it had still been perfect in its very own way back then from his childhood perspective.
When he was a bit older, he had gotten his first heat cycle and began fighting with his dad for the leadership of the pack.
Grif had gotten beat up pretty badly. His dad was going easy on him actually, he was not biting him or hurting him too severely even when he had ample opportunity to do so given Grif's inexperience: rather he was just immobilizing him and making him give up so that they wouldn't fight anymore.
He had to accept then that he wasn't ready to be the leader of the pack.
Only months later, his dad died in another battle for the leadership of the pack…resulting in his mother leaving him and Kai, who had just turned into her human form a month before their parents left, alone.
Kai tried not to show it, but Grif was certain that she was suffering due to the fact that their parents weren't there any longer.
Grif did his best to be there for her. He took her out to the mall, shopping for clothes together with her for her birthday. He noticed that something was off though-months later, they would find out that she was color blind. There was nothing he could do for her on that front though at the moment, instead trying to do what he could by offering support elsewhere…helping her continue to shop for clothes and then make sure that she had something to eat, no matter if that meant that Grif would have to go to bed hungry for the next few days.
But hey, his sister had just turned human for the first time and it was her birthday six months later. Besides, she was growing so fast all the time, she needed new clothes almost every month! She was always trying to keep a smile on her face despite everything, cheering Grif up when he felt like everything got too much. To Grif, every day of being hungry was fucking worth it if it was for her sake!
Simmons laughed lowly.
"So this is some kind of major event for you wolvens when you turn for the first time then?"
Grif nodded which was a strange feeling as his face was still pressed against Simmons' chest, "Yes, you can say it's like a second birthday. It's a great day for a wolven." Grif explained, a fond smile playing along his lips when he thought back on his sister's big day.
Although they were arguing constantly, they were as close as was possible for any sibling to be to one another. Their whole arguing and bantering back-and-forth was just a natural part of their dynamic, actually.
This arguing was something unique to their relationship, similar in a way to the bantering in Grif and Simmons' own relationship.
They were so close, you couldn't put a sheet of paper in-between them so to speak.
"Is this something only pureblood wolvens celebrate?" Simmons asked, rather curious.
"I don't know, actually. Guess that's something every pack handles differently." Grif remarked after pondering over his boyfriend's question for several moments.
Right. The wolven had grown up in a pack of pureblood wolvens, not knowing how anything would be handled if someone was introduced to the pack who had been turned and hadn't been born a wolven.
"Would you celebrate it then, if you had turned someone in your pack?"
Grif looked up then, a bit startled and confused by the question, so Simmons hurried to explain what he meant by it, "Only hypothetically speaking. Like… imagine if you had a turned one in your pack."
Grif again lapsed into silence, obviously mulling over what Simmons had just asked him.
"It's difficult to say for certain. I guess I would still celebrate the first full conscious change from wolven to human and back again if I had a turned one in my pack." the Hawaiian replied with a thoughtful voice.
"A conscious change?" Simmons asked, looking down at the wolven resting on his chest.
"Yeah." Grif responded and promptly started to explain further at Simmons' questioning expression, "You know, when someone gets turned-they miss years and years of changing and living in a wolven body like we purebloods are used to doing." He informed him.
"So your body changes to a wolven form and stays in it for some time to get you used to this new form too and to get acquainted to the mindset you have as a wolven. You cannot turn consciously then." Grif continued, fiddling a bit in order to change his position.
He had been lying for hours in the same position, so it was no wonder that he was starting to feel sore.
Simmons let the wolven change his resting position just then, waiting for the Hawaiian to continue.
"Your body decides when you turn and for how long. It takes some time until your body, instincts, and mind gets used to the new second form you are able to take up." Grif informed him, Simmons humming along with the explanations to let the other know that he was listening.
"So, like, that takes some time to do." Grif repeated, "I've heard from others that the amount of time is different for every individual who is turned. Everyone is able to control the changes, although your instinct will always tell you when to change. But at some point after your turning, you can control that instinct and just not react to it." Grif shrugged, obviously not really knowing what else he could say more on the subject of the turned ones since he obviously didn't know any turned ones himself.
"So turned ones have something like an acclimatization period where they cannot decide which form they want to be in as their whole being needs to get used to the changes from the bite." Simmons repeated the information he had just heard, looking at Grif thoughtfully, "But they will be able to control it later though, once their body, mind, and instincts are somewhat use to being a wolven?"
"Yeah, something like that. Dunno, it's what I learned from my mom way back when." Grif replied, shrugging his shoulders again.
"It's okay, it's more information than I expected. As far as I know, you never had a turned one in your pack, right?" Simmons smiled, easing a knot out of Grif's hair.
The wolven rumbled contentedly.
"Nope, it was only ever me and my sister after my mom left." He told him, "I didn't accept another member into the pack until we got here and you showed up."
"You wouldn't have accepted me if it wasn't for your sister." the redhead replied dryly.
Kai had a very bad cough at the time, and since Kimball knew that Simmons wanted to follow in her footsteps, she made him her assistant when she treated Kai's cough.
She had also ordered him to stay around the wolven girl and help her with her daily routines or inform Kimball should her cough get worse.
The female wolven had immediately accepted him as her personal shadow: playing with him, talking both of his ears off during the day (at least it had felt like that), and using him as a living heater during the night whenever the chill from her fever was stronger.
Grif had been very wary, almost a bit aggressive, when Simmons got too close to Kai.
It took days as Kai slowly got better until Grif started to relax, slowly realizing that Simmons meant no harm. And Grif had also realized by that point that he had no choice but to accept the redhead into the group as Kai had obviously already decided to make him a part of her pack.
Simmons hadn't known how to react to all of that back then, what with Kai already clearly having decided about his future considering that the Grif pack would be living in the Sanctuary.
When Grif changed to his human form for the first time following that, they had their first banter.
God, had Simmons thought of him being handsome back then when he first saw him and had been blushing like crazy throughout the whole thing.
They argued about Grif not having the decency to turn beforehand to thank Kimball for taking them in.
Grif had rolled his eyes, calling the redhead a suck up, which was promptly replied to with Simmons calling him a lazy ass. They kept on with their banter for minutes, Kai lying beside Simmons and sleeping soundly through the whole thing.
She had gotten better soon after, her cough vanishing as she started getting up and running through the Sanctuary with her usual cheeriness and energy that she still displayed, even to this day after she had recovered from her grief over the loss of her mom.
Grif had accepted Simmons as a companion by then and did not act aggressive towards him anymore afterwards, even turning from time to time just to spend time with the redhead. Sometimes they would sit in amicable silence, sometimes they would banter back-and-forth, and sometimes Simmons would explain something to Grif.
Soon after Grif had accepted the redhead as a companion to their pack, he started pulling Simmons out of his panic attacks. When he was freaking out, Grif would appear as either a human or a wolven, and would sit or lie down beside the panicking redhead and just chill out while Simmons slowly calmed down from rising sense of fear.
Simmons smiled, still carding his fingers through Grif's hair. He lightly scratched his fingernails over the wolven's scalp, earning a contented hum from the wolven in turn.
His other hand, which had been resting on his hip until then, started moving—rubbing gentle circles into Grif's waist.
Sometime later, he let that hand move up to Grif's shoulder, his fingers trailing along the other man's spine.
When his hand wandered back down, he let it travel over Grif's side, earning a shudder and a contended sigh from his boyfriend. He could feel him cuddle closer.
A smile played along Simmons' lips.
It didn't take long for the people of the Sanctuary to know that they were official. Simmons mostly heard things along the lines of "Finally! I thought you guys were never going to get your shit sorted out!" when the topic was brought up.
It was… embarrassing and surprising at first, but later on it was annoying and still embarrassing. He often used to turn beet red and spluttered around until Grif standing beside him would flip the person off with a nonchalant answer and a peck on Simmons' lips before he would drag the still spluttering redhead away from the person they were just talking to.
It was something that bothered Simmons for some time. Everyone seemed to have known that they were a thing before they had even known what they were. So was that why everyone said something about them finally getting their shit straight?
Okay, putting Tucker aside since he was only talking perverted nonsense and wanting to know all of the dirty details. Donut also was down for the dirty details, but neither Grif nor Simmons did them the favor of telling them anything. (And, besides? They hadn't even had sex yet actually. Simmons felt his cheeks starting to heat up when he thought about that.)
But the rest of them? Well he had to admit that they were maybe just a little bit obvious with their feelings even when neither of them had realized that they were a thing actually. It seems like everyone else already knew.
Simmons had sighed back then, deciding to just view it like that and stop thinking about it as he would only start to overthink things and freak out once more.
Grif was lying down beside Simmons and pulled him into a tight hug just then, a deep kiss chasing away all of the remaining thoughts lingering in his head.
Without really realizing it, Simmons was already replying to the kiss—wanting to just enjoy the moment with Grif being there.
They kept on making out for more than an hour before they finally fell asleep, closely cuddled up beside each other.
When Grif spoke next, Simmons could hear the smug smile in his voice.
"Watch out, man, that kind of turns me on."
He hadn't opened his eyes, shuddering from time to time while he enjoyed their time together with Simmons caressing him like that.
"Uh, what?" Simmons squeaked, his voice starting to raise in pitch.
"You rubbing me like that. That's kind of hot. I like it." Grif rumbled, turning his head up to let his lips ghost against Simmons' throat.
Kai had moved back to her room some days ago, so they didn't need to fear her barging in suddenly.
"You… like that?" It took Simmons some moments to understand what his love had just told him.
He shuddered when he felt the wolven's lips continue to ghost over his throat down to the spot right over his collar bone.
Grif shifted, bracing his weight on one of his arms to reach more of Simmons to kiss. His free hand started roaming over the clothed chest of the redhead, making him shudder and sigh lowly.
Grif rumbled in his throat when he felt Simmons' hand wander lower, over his ass and up his back again, starting to caress spots he hadn't been able to caress before when Grif was still lying on his side.
A low moan escaped Simmons' throat when he felt the wolven's hand wander over his chest down to his waistband. A full body shudder made him tremble when Grif's slightly cold hand slipped under the shirt and wandered the whole way back up to his chest.
The redhead got somewhat curious and brave as well, letting his hand slip underneath the wolven's shirt to explore the skin underneath.
With that same motion, Simmons managed to pull the wolven on top of him. His boyfriend complied with Simmons' request with a hum, moving to lie between his legs.
That? That position was definitely good.
Simmons was now able to reach all of Grif's upper body, letting his hands roam over the Hawaiian's upper body and earning shudders, sighs, hums, and low moans from Grif as a reward.
That was something absolutely amazing and incredible to witness, and Simmons asked himself why they hadn't tried this out earlier.
But considering what they had gone through, both of them, it was understandable that they hadn't been in the mood or hadn't had time for more intimate interactions before now.
So the prospect of them doing so now?
Considering they both were pretty onboard with what they were doing at the moment, the time seemed to be perfect.