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Funkita - Hola! I apologize for the super long delay in updates, there's been a lot of stuff going on in our personal lives that made this take a bit of a back seat. I apologize for that and I'm here with an update!

Please forgive us? :)


The curtain closed and Medusa Gorgon took a deep, calming breath. The only problem was that she didn't feel calmer at all. 'What does he want now?' She mumbled to herself, glaring at the older wolf that was accompanying her son. "Why won't you drop dead already, Wolf?" There was a guilty pang in her chest after those words exited her mouth. She bit down on her lip. He was her best friend's husband… her ex-best friend. They weren't anymore.

The knock on the door made her jump, despite her knowing they were approaching, it still startled her. She fixed her silk robe and tied it up respectfully. She opened the door slightly. "What do either of you want?"

Deuce began to shake once more, "I just wanted to get some clothes and my car." The scared gorgon mumbled as he avoided eye contact with his mother.

"No, I don't think so-" Before she could shut the door, a werewolf's strong paw held it open.

"Oh I do think so," he growled. "Dusa… let the boy in. The quicker he grabs his shit, the quicker we can leave."

She stood aside and pulled the door open slowly. She didn't have to like what was going on, she only had to endure it for a short period of time.

Deuce stepped inside the house, as he glanced back towards Pops and his mother. He didn't know what she would do while his back was turned.

Barkley gave him a nod. "Go ahead, bud. I'll be alright."

She glared at the werewolf, who threatened to step one foot into her household. When Deuce took off she attempted to follow suit… until Barkley Wolf stepped in her home and shut the door behind him. "Well, I see you've remodeled."

"Yes, I did." She answered coldly.

"Not bad, certainly not the layout I remember." Barkley thought about it. "What, 13 years ago or so?"

She pulled her robe over insecurely, 13 years ago when… he was still in their lives. The man that was supposed to love her for the rest of eternity but then left. "Shut up Barkley… just shut up."

He shook his head, "I can speak when I want to and say what I damn well please."

She turned her head, Medusa felt a familiar stinging sensation behind her eyes but she concentrated hard on retracting those possible tears. She wore a pair of beautiful designer sunglasses.

Meanwhile Deuce made his way to the bedroom, nothing had been touched. It was still the same from when he was there last. Deuce wheeled his luggage from his closet, out. He figured it would be easier this way. He grabbed as much of his clothing as he could, that way Ma wouldn't have to wash his clothes all the time.

The gorgon bit his lip, double checking to make sure he had everything. His keys were downstairs – hopefully. Once satisfied he closed up the room once more. Standing near the top of the stairs, he could clearly see his mother and Barkley, whom looked very comfortable on the couch, just glaring at each other.

As he carried his bag down the stairs carefully Deuce's eyes fell upon his mother's wrist, where those the claw marks Clawd had left?

Barkley's eyes were drawn to the claw marks on her wrist as well. "Who did you piss off?" He went to put his foot up on her coffee table and she glared at him.

"Keep your feet off my table, Wolf." She warned him, pulling the sleeve of her robe down. "Your offspring did this to me."

Barkley winced. "Ouch, seems like you certainly upset him. Did you give him a good reason to?"

"You've got what you came here for, now leave." She told him.

Barkley stood up and headed her way, Medusa cowered with the height difference between them. "Keys." He said flatly.

She bit down on her lip. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Barkley connected their gazes. "Give me the keys to Deuce's vehicle. I'm not playing with you."

Medusa almost knocked a lamp over trying to get away from him. She was trying to think of where she put them. "I… I, I think they're hanging. Deuce, check the key rack… and call this damn guard dog off me!"

Deuce walked over to the small rack near the front door, a small smile swept across his face when he noticed they were there. Grabbing them and tucking them into his pocket, he went to his bag. "Come on Pops, I believe I owe you a cheeseburger." The young gorgon said, double checking his pocket for his keys.

Medusa was positive her eye twitched and her skin crawled. Her son called him 'Pops'? Deuce found enough comfort in the werewolf to address him in a fatherly light. How dare he?

"Can I get 2?" He joked with the young gorgon. He looked to Medusa, he placed a hand on her shoulder and she looked fearful. "Take care of yourself, alright?" Barkley and Deuce headed out the door of the loveless mansion together.

"Sure you can, I'll get you 3 if you want." Deuce joked as he wheeled his bag towards his car. Was it sad how much he missed driving it?

"Thanks buddy, you're definitely my favorite kid." Barkley knew that Scarlet wouldn't be quite impressed with their choice of dinner but she could wait. She was probably furiously mashing potatoes if he knew his wife well enough. He knew she was pissed if they had excellently mashed potatoes for dinner.

Max made the mistake of revving his own engine as Deuce put his hand on the handle of his driver's side door. "Wanna race to the die-ner?"

Barkley gave a hearty laugh. "Oh Max you don't know what you've just started… Deuce does all his own stunts… you're too pretty."

(¯`·._(¯`·._(¯`·._( MONSTER HIGH )_.·´¯)_.·´¯)_.·´¯)

Barkley and Deuce had been waiting outside the local die-ner for about 10 minutes now, Max was no where to be seen. As a matter of fact, the boys were starting to get hungry. They mutually decided to give him another 5 minutes and if he wasn't here, they'd be going in without him.

The silver rental car pulled into the parking lot and found an available spot. He got out, locked the doors and headed over to the 2 impatient males. "I know I'm grandpa and all," Barkley paused. "but you sir, drive like one."

Maximilian was flabbergasted. "But… how… Deuce took the longer way?" He was utterly stunned.

"This is why you're the pretty one." The gorgon said leaning against his car with the biggest smile upon his face.

Barkley gave a nod. "And you don't do your own stunts."

"Damn it pops, are you trying to tell me something?" Max narrowed his eyes.

"Yes, and it's hurry the hell up before I take a chunk out of an unsuspecting creature." He wasn't sure why he felt so hungry but if he didn't eat something soon he wasn't sure what would happen.

They headed into the die-ner and were seated shortly after entering. Maximilian always loved the old style of this quaint place, he and Clawdia had lunch here just the other day. "What are we having guys?" He asked the both of them.

Barkley himself wanted a hefty cheeseburger but he wasn't sure if he should have it or not. He looked at the menu and hummed in thought.

"I think I know what Pops wants." The gorgon noticed the wolf had flipped threw the menu at least 3 times now.

Barkley closed the menu and set it aside. "Good, because apparently I have no idea."

Max bit down on his lip, he thought about going with something healthier but he shook off the thought. "I'll go with the gut-buster!" He was quite excited to get his hands on a juicy burger since he had to go on a strict weight-loss diet for his last role. He was a strong, lean werewolf on the norm but some characters required more weight, less weight, etc.

"You sure you can handle all that food pretty boy?" The gorgon teased Max.

Maximilian grinned, his pearly white canines showing. "Oh I sure can, I thought I was gonna die of starvation when I was prepping for my last role. I had to lose 20 pounds in like, 2 and ½ weeks to do it in."

Barkley cringed. "Gee Max, isn't that unhealthy?"

Deuce's eyes went wide. "I'm sure Clawdia didn't like you dropping weight like that. Dude, that's nuts." The gorgon knew personally he would beat Clawd's ass if he ever did that.

Max shook his head, "Oh hell no, she was pissed. She felt bad because it was a script of hers but I mean, they want what they want right? It's what's pleasing to them on screen."

Barkley nodded, "Yeah but bud, that's risky to drop so much in a short period of time. You're messing with your body in all kinds of ways. Here I am, barely wanting to take pills to keep my body doing what it's supposed to do and I'm not changing it drastically." He lightly lectured the younger wolf. He had a way of telling someone his opinion without pushing it too hard. "That's gonna get awfully harder to do when you're older."

Max nodded, he would like to keep acting and providing for his family but he also wanted to be there for everything. He wasn't quite sure what to do. "Speaking of getting older… what do you think about Clawdia and I staying here in New Salem? Raising our pups?" He was already considering the thought of having more than a single pup.

Deuce perked up at the mere mentioning of it, he honestly loved Clawdia. He also knew Clawd would love it if his favorite sibling was a lot closer as well. "It would be great." He wouldn't lie, he wanted to be around when Max and Clawdia had their pups.

Barkley liked the sound of that very much. "I was gonna say, if you think you're taking my daughter out of the country to have her baby, you've got another thing coming."

Max nodded in agreement. "I would never do that. You guys are her life. She could get rid of me and move on easily, but her family?" He smiled. "Back when we started talking about our future together, we decided that if we were gonna have pups we would settle down here. As long as you guys were okay with it of course."

Deuce was nearly jumping out of his seat. "But what about your movie career Max? I mean the drive from Salem to Hauntly is wild. A plane ride's just as bad." The gorgon didn't want Max spending all his time traveling and miss out on the pup growing up.

Maximilian spit the answer out so quickly he didn't even have to think about it. "Oh my career's absolutely on hold. I was waiting to hear from this one role but my wife and baby are more important. I can do voice work or whatever but I wouldn't be away filming and I wouldn't be dragging Clawdia and the pup everywhere. Where we plant our roots, we stay. To be honest, I don't want to miss a single first. I don't wanna miss when my pup speaks, when they open their eyes..."

Barkley smiled warmly, remembering every one of his pup's births. "A child brought into the world and the first years of their lives are precious indeed."

The gorgon clenched his stomach, hearing that Max would give up his career for their pup kind of made him a little jealous. He loved the picture Max was painting, he just wished his mother thought the same way.

It was heartwarming indeed that he would put everything on hold to take care of his family, that's exactly the way things should be prioritized. "And I mean, Clawdia can still work too but from home. She can send her amazing scripts out. Sometimes she's just fooling around with an idea and I find it and I like it, or I'd like to see how it would look on screen. She wrote the entire Mortal Danger series."

"She did?" The gorgon questioned, he didn't know that. It was so action packed that it wouldn't seem like something Clawdia would have written.

Max nodded. "Oh yeah, would you believe that it was just chilling on an old laptop? We found it, booted it up and read through it. It wasn't completed so she worked on it in her spare time and finished it. Sometimes she allows me to go through her stories/scripts and pick who I'd like to portray. Or she'll say, 'I'd like to see you try this character'."

"What about on-screen kisses or steamy scenes?" It was a question that always burned in the older wolf's mind. Was that awkward for them? Was it 'just work'?

Maximilian chuckled. "Honestly, sometimes Clawdia has to tell me how she wants me to kiss on screen because I make it so painfully awkward. I hate kissing when it's not my wife." He shook his head.

The waitress finally approached their table and the 3 sitting there placed their orders and she brought them glasses of water. Apparently it was quite busy tonight. "Would you ever have Clawdia as your co-star?"

"A family package deal?" Deuce thought about the discount the director could get.

Max chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders. "I've mentioned it to her but she freaks out. She hates being in front of the camera – but she has no problem picking out a female lead for me. She'll be like, 'This one has nice boobs, but this one has a nice smile' and I'm just, shocked." He smiled. "She's certainly one-of-a-kind and I'm so lucky."

Luckily it didn't take too long for their food to arrive to the table, Max dug right in and Barkley started with his side of fries. He figured he would eat them first, take his pill and then dive into his burger head first.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched Pops before digging into his meal. He also shifted his attention towards Max who looked like he just gotten a taste of food for the first time. The gorgon couldn't help but chuckle, as he let his mind drift to want happened only about an hour ago.

It seemed to be taking quite some time for him to finish the side of fries. Normally a ravenous Barkley Wolf would've downed them and already been half-way through his burger and enjoying a cold, tall glass of his favorite beer, but that was the farthest thing from his approach tonight.

"I thought you were hungry, old man?" Max asked the older wolf, taking note of his slow approach.

"I was." Barkley told him, lightly sighing. He wondered if it was the anticipation of having to take his pill? Might as well get that over with now. He pulled the pills out of his pocket and opened the bottle. He brought one out, putting the lid back on the bottle and shoving it into his pocket. It was orange and triangular. He popped it in and took a sip of water. He was thankful for the fact it was small.

Hopefully he'd be able to eat the rest of his meal without that feeling of uneasiness.

"So, what's the side effects?" Max asked, he wasn't trying to be nosy, he only wanted to keep an eye out just in case.

Barkley shrugged, "I have no idea." He had another sip of water.

"Pops doesn't really like knowing the side effects, that way his mind can't trick him in believing he is going through it when he isn't." Deuce remembered when Pops had to take a cough and cold syrup and it said he might get a rash. That day the older wolf scratched thinking he was breaking out in hives, when he wasn't.

Barkley agreed instantly. "He's exactly right. I mean, why do they have to stress people out unnecessarily anyway huh? It's just bullshit."

Max had finished his food and sighed contentedly. "Yeah, I get it. I don't blame you, pops."

Barkley nodded, though he wasn't sure if one of the side effects was tiredness. He doubted it since he only took it moments ago, but he was certainly worn out from the day's events. "I'll have to take this to go. I'm not getting through this tonight."

Max nodded, "I figured you would as soon as you slowed down with the fries. How are you doing there, Deuce?"

Deuce looked down at his barely touched plate, thank goodness Clawd hadn't really seen what he been eating lately. The wolf would be very worried at the fact he barely eaten anything. "I think I'm in the same boat as Pops." The gorgon said now playing with his side salad.

"Alright guys, I'll take care of this and we'll get some containers and head home." Maximilian headed up to the counter to pay for the dinner. Take-out containers were dropped off and Barkley transferred the dishes perfectly.

He handed them to Deuce and all 3 of them left the die-ner promptly.