Summary: M-21 was starting to shed.
Inspired by cat-t-wisteria's pic here: cat-t-wisteria tumblr com / post / 649724350292967424
Pace the Night
By Dark Ice Dragon
Shed
"Ah, c'mon, Em, it's not that - ack!" Tao rubbed M-21's head, but bounced away, shaking his hand.
"What is it?" M-21 said, frowning. There was something floating in the air. It was light grey and looked like a cotton ball that had been pulled apart.
"It just felt like-" Tao squinted at him, leaning in close.
M-21 didn't do anything when Tao reached across and pulled at his hair. Was something caught in it?
When Tao pulled his hand back, there was more of the grey cotton stuff.
"Em," Tao said, blinking at what was in his hand, "I think you're shedding."
M-21 frowned. "That's not my hair." He knew what his hair looked like, and it wasn't that. What Tao held was too fine, too clustered together.
"I just-" Tao waved the fluff in his hand. "I just pulled this from your head! You felt it." He paused. "Didn't you?"
"I felt you pulling at my hair," M-21 admitted, but this could still be one of Tao's jokes.
"Gggh, okay, fine." Tao craned his neck, looking over the sofa, and smiled. "Hey, Takeo, c'mere a sec."
"What is it?" Takeo asked as he entered the living room.
"Can you dig through Em's hair, and see what you pull out?"
Takeo didn't move, raising his eyebrows.
Tao reached over, parting M-21's hair, making him sigh. "Pinch a bit of hair and pull it."
"That's easy to do," M-21 muttered as he felt Takeo's fingers in his hair. What was hair when they could punch through metal?
Except when Takeo pulled, M-21 frowned. It wasn't the instant snap of hair breaking or getting pulled out of the roots. It didn't hurt like his hair was resisting either. It was as if his hair was getting stretched instead.
"See!" Tao said and when M-21 looked over, he saw the grey ball of fluff in Takeo's hand.
"What the fuck is that?" Was his hair changing? To what?
"Iii think you're uh, shedding your undercoat?" Tao said.
"I don't have-" M-21 cut himself off with a sigh. "Do wolves...?" Except he already knew the answer, if Tao had brought it up.
"Yeah, haha..."
"Urgh." Of course they fucking did, and he was changing so much his hair was changing now.
"So I guess we'll hafta add hair brushing to our routine now," Tao said, still peering at M-21's hair.
"Why?" It was just hair.
"I think it can get tangled if it doesn't get brushed, and, well." Tao snagged the bit of M-21's hair that had fallen to the ground. "It means less clean-up since it won't fall out as much."
M-21 grimaced. "Fine." The less mess, the better.
[-]
Tao brushed M-21's hair.
And brushed it.
And brushed it.
"Are you fucking serious?" M-21 could see the mound of hair Tao was putting down next to him on the bed, but how the fuck was all that on his head?
"It's super dense!" Tao said, still brushing.
"Urgh."
[-]
"It'd be faster to just shave my head," M-21 muttered the next day, because apparently this was meant to be a daily thing. This time it was Takeo brushing his hair, and it didn't look like he would be done any time faster than Tao.
"What?" Tao said, his eyes wide as he sat at the foot of M-21's bed. "But then we'd have to cut it again to straighten it out again!"
M-21 rolled his eyes. "And then shave it again the next night." Because he was sure his hair would regrow in the time it took for him to wake up.
"I don't mind brushing your hair," Takeo said, still brushing.
M-21 sighed. If the others didn't mind...
[-]
"When am I going to run out of hair," M-21 said, as he brushed Takeo's hair while Tao brushed his. Or was his werewolf healing also just regrowing his undercoat every single night?
"I think that'll only be when you stop shedding, heh."
"And when's that?"
"Uh..." Tao didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Winter, I think?"
"Urgh." Of course it was.
"But I think most of the undercoat will be gone by summer."
He could only hope.
[-]
"Hey, Em," Tao said, laying next to M-21, poking at the hair pile Takeo was building, "I think we already have enough fur to make another you!"
The pile just kept growing, and it had been over a week since they'd started.
"Do ya think I could make a suit out of your hair?" Tao said, inspecting the fibres. "Or maybe into something to wear under the suit, hmm."
"Why would you want to?" The suits were warm enough already.
"Think about it!" Tao stretched some of the fur. "If it's made of your hair, maybe your transformation won't wreck it!"
...That sounded like it made sense in Tao's logic.
"And if your hair is like your nails," Takeo added, "it might be like an armour."
"Yeah, yeah!" Tao nodded. "Maybe I should try and make something for all of us!"
M-21 wasn't sure how Tao would even do that, but what else were they going to do with his hair anyway?
[-]
"Heeey, Em," Tao called out as he entered his room, "you ready for-" Tao paused, seeing the grey wolf in M-21's room. Whoops, was it that time of the month already?
M-21 stared back at him. Tao saw M-21 look at the brushes in his hand, and then sat down, his tail wagging.
"Oooh, you liar," Tao said with a laugh, going in. "You've been loving the brushing sessions!" M-21 had just been faking being all grumpy.
"C'mon then," Tao said, settling down on M-21's bed, M-21 jumping up to rest between his legs, "let's get started.
[-]
M-21 was sleeping as Tao and Takeo finished brushing his fur.
"You really like being brushed, huh?" Tao said with a soft smile.
He got a grumble for that, M-21 pressing his head against Takeo's thigh with a sigh.
"Okay, all done," Tao said, patting M-21's side. "You wanna sleep the rest of the night, or do you wanna do something else?"
M-21's ear twitched before he got up with a stretch and a yawn.
"A yes," Takeo said, sweeping up what else he could of M-21's fur into the bag.
"Right then!" Tao hopped off the bed. "Let's go!"