The bat
"I-I am not as striking as you are, mon ami." He said watching Sniper playing with his claws, making them close around his finger as he pressed the centre of his hand.
"I bet the contrary, mate. Just look at your hand!" He held it up pointing at the membrane starting to show between his fingers.
"Look at my gloves. You have no idea how many times I had to sew them up and eventually get new ones."
L.J.'s eyes fell on them at his side on the table and he picked them up. It wasn't easy to see the damaged parts, but looking thoroughly, Sniper noticed that each finger had a hole on the tip. He nodded and gave them back. "I know how you feel, it happened to me too, twice, with my boots."
Spy laughed and set the gloves away in a pocket of his coat. "I'm not quite a show, though."
"I'll be the judge for that." He added giving him a wink.
Spy sighed with a smile. "Laugh and I'll bite your neck."
L.J. sat up all serious and crossed his heart with a claw, causing a button to pop off as it mistakenly passed on it. He gasped as it flew straight to his friend's nose. Jean-Claude made such a surprised face that made the wolf snort.
"Ah. Headshot…?" He offered an embarrassed grin.
Spy snickered and got up. "Fine, you win. I just need to…oh. Well…this might get awkward."
Sniper slightly tilted his head to the side, ears all up.
With a chuckle, the spook spread his arms. "I might need to remove my shirt."
"Oh!" He chuckled, "Mate, at least you don't have a zip on your ass. But still," Sniper shifted on his chair, his ears stretched back. "want me to, ehm, turn around?" His paw signed a circle on the table.
For a brief moment Spy thought about it. He frankly didn't mind him watching, not at all, he actually wanted him to watch. He bit the inner side of his cheek. "No, it's not necessary."
At that, Sniper leaned on the table, his head on his crossed arms, and shyly watched. As Spy started working on his buttons, Sniper felt a tingle growing in his belly. It was almost imperceptible at first, but by the time the spook had reached the last one, with his white shirt slightly open, just enough to let him have a peek of the skin underneath, the tingle grew so much to be uncomfortably…pleasant…and L.J. preferred to be careful, sneakily hiding his tail between his legs. He kept thinking he was a professional, a deadly opponent with no rivals, an infallible shooter with the heart of ice…which, he admitted to himself, had started melting since the two had become friends.
He suddenly realized Jean-Claude was looking at him straight in the eyes. His expression a mystery, a mischievous smile as his hands slowing opened the shirt, yet his eyes shone with a kind of tenderness the Sniper had never seen. He felt a warmth he missed immensely, something he had almost forgotten, and he heartily welcomed it.
Something showing up sharply caught his attention. There were signs on the Spy's pale skin, dark lines he had mistakenly taken as simple hair. When Jean removed the shirt placing it over his chair, all L.J. could see were tattoos, Celtic themed tattoos, knots and chains all over his right arm, from shoulder to wrist, with a big Celtic Trinity design flashing atop; a complex picture of weird forms filled with other knots covering his other shoulder and left breast; another sleeve of a different knot design hid the left arm from the elbow to the wrist; and as last of what he could spot, an elegant thin torc tattooed around his neck.
"I bet you weren't expecting it, right, mon ami?" The Spy chuckled to himself as he proudly spread his arms, slowly spinning once to show him all his best sides.
The big wolf got up and trotted closer to get a better look, still keeping a security distance. His nostrils were flaming with the spook's unforgettable smell. He shook the dizziness of the moment off and dared to trace a line on his arm with a gentle claw. "They are amazing, so tangled, so complex looking. God, mate, how long did they take to be done?" He withdrew to his chair hoping his tail would stop wagging that wildly. His eyes were fixed on the ink show, but surely he couldn't avoid noticing how fit the Spy was, how good looking and handsome he was. Apparently following his brother's military training had its own benefits.
"I had my first ten years ago, more or less," he pointed at his left ankle, "a warrior brand around my ankle, and these on my shoulders took about 2 years to be finished. Totally worth it."
Sniper scoffed amazed. "I have a couple myself under this fur, a stylized lizard on my arm," he patted his left one, "and an aboriginal sun on my back with rays running down all the way."
"Oh, you'll need to show me." He smirked, a sharp long canine peeped out.
"Wings first, mate."
Jean rolled his eyes and nodded.
He looked down and took a deep breath.
Soon the wolf's ears started twitching at the faint, yet familiar, cracking of bones changing, stretching and adjusting. He could hear Spy's anatomy transform under the friend's low growling and panting, he could hear his transformation, his fingers getting incredibly long and webbed, his claws ripping fully out from their sockets and even fur growing.
When the noise stopped, his vision was filled of white. As he looked up at his face, his tail started wagging even faster. The spook resembled a lot a flying fox because of the long muzzle, but he had quite big ears and a triangular pointed nose. Still, his appearance was of a breath-taking elegance, that white fur gave him a spectral look and those up-straight ears and fluffy collar gave him the posture of a king. His eyes were as glacial as ever, deeply gazing back at him, yet filled with hope.
Then he saw the wings. They were huge, so big he thought they probably couldn't fit in his van if wide spread. Completely white, as white as a ghost. He wondered if his friend has ever tried to fly, but he couldn't find any words for how amazedly hypnotized he was.
The ghostly creature smiled at the achieved reaction he obtained from the wolf and went to close his hanging mouth with his thumb. "So, what you think, mon ami?"
"You'r-" He gulped. "You're bloody gorgeous, mate." He smiled back, noticing two long canines peeping out from under his upper lip. "And really nice fangs you got there, bloodsucker."
The spook jokingly patted his chin. "So far I never bit a human neck, loup-garou." And surprisingly, and unbelievably quickly, he changed back into human form as he sat down.
James blinked in confusion and almost started to complaint about for how short he had showed himself, but he immediately changed approach as he saw Jean-Claude holding his head between his hands. As he got up, he too changed back to his natural form through a rapid successions of cracking and snapping, and placed a careful hand on his back. "Are you ok?"
Jean took a good minute to answer, his head was spinning so damn much… He had forgotten how tired he was and how empty his stomach was.
He felt a blanket being placed over his shoulders as he looked up and a steamy cup of tea landed before him.
"This will get you back on your feet. My recipe. Cookies?"
Jean sighed giving him a "You're-hopeless" look, but accepted gladly. There was no need to sniff the tea from close to understand how strong it might have been.
Sniper gave him a tray with cookies and sat down. It was hard to miss his excitement. He couldn't stay still, his leg jumped constantly for few seconds before he jolted up from his chair, his hands flailing around trying to follow his words. It looked like he was finally letting out all what he had hold in after the events of that evening. "I-I can't freaking believe it! It's simply amazing that you too…! Damnit, I saw you, you saw me, you were like I'm a monster! and I was like I'm a monster too. You got claws, wings, oh god, have you ever flown? God, mate, and-and your teeth! Are longer than mine! You saw mine, didn't you? I actually enjoy using them once in a while when I can go to the forest south of the canyon, you know, hunting and stuff… How do yours actually work? Can you suck blood through them like a true vampire? Or you just cut through? And what other stuff can you d-!"
"Arrêt arrêt arrêt!" Jean stood in front of him holding his wrists. "You surely explode when you can't hold it in anymore, James."
"I-I just can't believe that among all the people that might be like Antoine and me," his excitement suddenly transformed into a tender tone "you had to be…"
Jean couldn't handle those big heterochromatic puppy eyes and shook his head, chuckling. "Well, you saw my reaction to see that you were in this situation as well. I can't deny how surprised I am, but I don't explode into a million of questions like you!" He gave him a nice hard pat over the forehead. "I'll answer after my tea."
They talked and talked, for a long time, they couldn't stop, they had too much to share about their "paranormal" situations, and often they had to transform a part of two of their bodies to explain or simply just to show off. Both of them had senses way more developed, Sniper the sense of smell while Spy the sense of hearing. Their sight was almost the same, they never had the necessity to use glasses and they could both see pretty well in the dark.
Sniper was proud of his teeth and insisted to confront them with Spy's. Jean wasn't that excited, but at the end he thought it could be fun and posed in front of a mirror James placed in front of them, half-transforming his face, just to show the muzzle and his long fangs. The fact he could be seen in the mirror made the vampire-thing totally fall. Sniper's were surely bigger and had a constant structure, more fitting for cutting, but Spy's were longer and sharper, for penetrating and holding. Jean-Claude, though, admitted he couldn't suck through them, he preferred… drinking… It was pretty hard for him to say that aloud, pretty embarrassing too. He said it was his brother to bring him what he needed, big, juicy steaks from the town down-valley that apparently never saw their Engineer's grill. Raw meat calmed him down just as much as it did on L.J.. Also, he added he never tried flying for many reasons, much to L.J.'s disappointment… Yet, he had a little surprise for him. Spy stood up and made sign to look carefully catching James's whole attention.
"This is something I actually found out just recently." He looked around squaring the walls of the tight place and moved to the door. There, he made sure it was well closed and surprisingly set a foot on it.
"What on Earth are you doing…"
And then the spook placed the other on the door too, balancing himself at the awkward initial angle before literally walking upward, until he was upside down, his feet on the ceiling. "Don't ask me how I can do it, I really have no idea."
A fist landed heavily on the table as Sniper, bent in half, roared with laughter of excitement. "You can't do this to me! That too?! You bloody bastard, that explains the other day!"
Spy laughed as well remembering when he recently reached his friend's nest coming in from a window and not from the usual door. Since then, L.J. had gone crazy because he hadn't heard the spook's classics steps from the stairs and couldn't understand how he had arrived. "Desolè, it sounded too fun I had to try."
"I would have done the same if I could!" He let the last pangs from laughing pass before curiously looking at the clock. It was few minutes past 3am. Maybe it was time for both of them to go to close their eyes. He yawned soundly.
Spy was back on his feet on the ground when he looked back at him and getting his coat on. "I guess I have to go, mon ami, you look pretty tired."
James's brow arched at him. "So now I'm the one who needs sleep here." He stood up shaking his head as he accompanied him to the exit.
"It's been such a freaky evening, hasn't it?" Spy offered moving aside as James opened the door for him.
"The most bizarre I had so far, mate." He smiled back at him trying to not show the tiny hint of sadness he felt as he reached for the door. He didn't want him to leave…
"You still have to show me your tattoos. Next time, I guess."
Sniper felt a huge lump in his throat as he winked at him and he suddenly remembered what was the promise he made to himself. That simple wink made his blood boil and immediately he started feeling his cheeks go hot. He was so unsettled that he didn't even heard Jean wish him goodnight and almost let him cloak to then disappear into the dark.
"W-Wait, spook!"
Jean-Claude stopped and turned back to him in concern, his heart slowly speeded up as he heard James's doing the same. Was he truly making the first step? Taking a step forward? He cursed in his mind as the mockery of his brother's voice ringed in his head. He had tried to take it, but he thought he needed two instead of one…
He gulped waiting for Sniper's next words.
The shooter was undoubtedly nervous, the hand holding the door clenched at it, probably leaving slight marks, and the other clenched at the shirt's border. He was also having a hard time to keep eye contact. "I have… something more to tell you…to ask you. I was wondering if you…you know, would come over for, ehm, a…for dinner, one of these days, when you can…you know, a normal dinner, a beer or two…" He gulped hard and looked straight at him. "Would you come to dinner with me?"
Spy slowly took a cautious step closer, his heart racing, still he managed to not show how thrilled he actually was. The warmth he only felt around James was more present than ever. "Is it…a date?" He carefully asked, taking another step closer.
L.J. stood immobile for long seconds before shyly nodding a couple of times. His fingers digging through the wood of the poor door.
The spook was back at the bottom of the stepladder, his lips slightly stretched in a warm smile. "Tomorrow, 8pm?"
Quickly, all the tension slid off L.J.'s body, making him feel like ready to melt on the spot, and he shakily nodded once again. "Yeah, 8pm."
"I won't be late. Bonne nuit, mon loup-garou." And with that, as his usual way, he disappeared, leaving the Aussie retreat in his van, lock the door, leaning against it to slide to the floor.
When Jean-Claude retreated under his blankets, all he could hear was a deep howling echoing in the canyon lulling him to sleep.
Tattoos references:
I'm sorry about the links, I tried to make them work with HTML, but I cannot visualize them as links in the chapter once modified. If you want to see the references, you can see them from my Tumblr. Link on my profile
