Santana scowled as she ran her hands over Fuzzbutt's stomach scratching it gently. It had been way longer than ten minutes that she had promised, but every single attempt she made to quit would lead to Fuzzbutt barking and growling at her. It was infuriating. "I was pretty sure I was supposed to be your mate, not the person that scratches your stomach because you're lazy," Santana reminded the wolf, as she finally begins to slow down, her arms exhausted.

At least Fuzzbutt had finally decided she had enough, and rolls over. "Thank you, my arms were getting tired and—oh gross! Ew! Stop it!" Santana shouts as she tries to push the wolf away as it pins her down and begins to lick her face messily. "Gross, your breath smells like death! What were you eating?" With a bit of force, she finally manages to push Fuzzbutt off her and scramble backwards wiping her face with her sleeve. She had homework to do. "You really need to work on your breath," Santana says and rolls her eyes when the wolf stretches out. "I'm going to start working on my—" She pauses for a moment, when the sound of bones and ligaments snapping and tearing before shifting into place fills the room and she turns to look at Fuzzbutt who was in the process of transforming back into Charlie.

It had been years since she'd seen Charlie's transformation, she'd seen Brittany transform once or twice, but while Brittany's looked painless and almost magical, Charlie's looked painful and it took longer. She watches as the fur recedes and Charlie finally slumps onto the bed, exhausted from the transformation. "Charlie," She begins.

"What?" Charlie asks after a moment.

"Your breath smells like death, so maybe you should go brush your teeth," Santana informs her. "That is if you still want to kiss me."

Charlie shifts on the bed a bit before remembering that she was still naked. She narrows her eyes slightly, and turns to look at Santana. "You just wanted to see me naked, didn't you?"

"I've seen you naked before remember? Your breath on the other hand can kill someone," Santana insists trying not to smile as Charlie looked around the room to wrap around her waist. Things were going relatively well between them, it was still stilted at times and things weren't back to the way they were before but she had missed Charlie, more than anything. Even if things felt slightly off they still felt nice better than they had with any previous lover.

"Can you at least pass me a towel?"

"No. I have a midterm coming up, I need to study," Santana reminds her, wiggling her anatomy book at Charlie.

Charlie sighs and grabs the pillow to protect her modesty and slides off her bed and shuffles behind Santana who seemed to be very into her textbook. "Shouldn't you go to a library or a—" Santana hands shoots out and grabs the small pillow yanking it from Charlie's grasp causing it to fall away. "Santana!"

"What? My hand slipped, I did tell you it was tired from all the pet rubs you made me do?" Santana insists as Charlie scampers off to the bathroom and slams the door. Santana tries not to laugh but she can't help the small giggle. "I'm sorry, I mean you made it so easy."

Charlie scowled as she popped her head out of the bathroom as she put on a pair of loose shorts and a ripped shirt. "No, I didn't, don't you have an exam to worry about?"

"I do, but I'm pretty good with my anatomy—my dad taught me like everything already, so this is just an easy exam for me. But I mean if you want to help with it—and I don't mean by quizzing me."

"No."

"No?" Santana blinks she hadn't been that underhanded with what she wanted. "We've been dating for a few weeks now and it's not as if we don't know each other. I mean I thought the reason you invited me over was so that we could finally, you know, fuck."

Charlie shrugs, "I invited you because I didn't have work today and things have been—stable as of late. Sex—well I don't know what that's going to do to me—to us. I don't think my wolf thinks of you that way to be honest."

Santana blinked and turned to look at Charlie, "What do you mean your wolf isn't attracted to me?"

"Well, you're not a wolf—I mean it's not that I'm unaware that there are some of our kind who like to play with that taboo but—" Charlie scratches her cheek. "We can't have kids, you don't go into heat, my wolf more or less sees you as the person who gives her food and gives the best scratches." Charlie says with a frown. "I thought you understood this."

"I thought you said we were mates," Santana frowned.

"We are. I can't actually mate with anyone else, I've tried like it doesn't work. But that's on the human end. The wolf end expected you to do the transformation, there's a bond on the wolf end as well but—I don't know how to explain it Santana. You're not a wolf, I think it would be like for you finding a horse or a bear or some other animal sexually attractive."

Santana stood still, Brittany had accused her of not listening. She was getting a sinking feeling that all of this, "Hold on, go back—we can't have kids?"

"You're human Santana, we can always adopt, but I can't get you pregnant or anything. It's not impossible," Charlie sighed. "I thought you knew this already."

"I didn't know this, you didn't explain it to me," Santana insists immediately. "I didn't know that there would be consequences—"

"I'm choosing to be your girlfriend Santana, I'm choosing to live my life as mostly human with the odd day where I turn furry. To be with you. I'll never have children, I'll never have a pack, I'll just have you. The alternative is not having you and that sucks more than being alone does." Charlie interrupts hoping that it ends the conversation. She didn't want to think about it. She hadn't even told her parents what her decision was.

"But that's not what I want for you," Santana points out. "I want you to have a family and to have kids—I want to have kids, not now but eventually. I mean yeah adoption is always something we could do but, you won't be happy."

"I'm happy with you," Charlie responds.

"No, you're content. There's a difference."

"Not a big one. The change could kill you, and it's not easy being one of us. If you want to be human then you should be that. Human. We can make it work, I mean we can go running in the woods together even if you are human. There are plenty of things that we can do together. I've been a lone wolf since my grandfather died and that was years ago. None of this is going to change anything, I just have you."

"Except you don't because you won't have sex with me," Santana argues.

"I do want to have sex with you, did you miss the fucking hardon that nearly smacked you in your face like twenty seconds ago?" Charlie rolls her eyes. "I'm just getting better, I'm off the drugs and everything but I'm still worried about everything, going feral and my life choices and going back to school and you want me to add having sex to all that confusion? I don't know what that's going to do to me and I'm finally reaching some sort of balance right now."

"Oh," Santana flushes, feeling a bit foolish. There was a lot of upheaval in her life at this moment and she was still trying to come to terms with her wolf. She felt like she was being insensitive, "I should—"

"Stay for dinner," Charlie says after a moment. "And study, I need to look at these stupid university brochures."

Santana pauses for a moment and chews on the inside of her lip. She sighs, "Alright, but no more distractions alright. That includes you getting naked or transforming into Fuzzbutt so I can scratch your belly because you're bored. Especially the getting naked part. It's very distracting."

Charlie tilts her head before smiling at Santana. "Noted. Study for your anatomy exam. If you ace it, I guess you can practice what you learned on me."

Santana pauses for a moment narrowing her eyes, Charlie was teasing her. "See if I ever make you bacon jerky again," she mutters. She's rewarded with a kiss on the cheek from Charlie, who has minty fresh breath now. "I'm serious," she insists as Charlie kisses her deeply. It takes a moment before she gently pushes Charlie away. "That won't work on me!"

Charlie laughs and takes a seat beside her and pulls her close. "Well worth a try," she says with a shrug.