"You don't have to cook for us, you know."

David held Moo Cow in his lap, while Cow reached between David's knees and tried to bat at Alex's head. Alex sat between David's feet, trying to decide if it was more important to play with Cow, or harass Kurt for food. Kurt stirred the pot on the stove; he was making a nice, heavy, thick clam chowder for dinner. Paul had told Kurt how ravenous the change made David and Kurt seemed to recall reading that werewolves burned a lot of calories switching back and forth. There wasn't a whole lot Kurt could think of that had more calories per bite than a creamy, New England-style chowder. Kurt just shrugged as he took a tiny sip of the cream from the wooden spoon he used to stir. "I love cooking. Besides, Alex and I will eat some, as well. It's not just for you."

"And Cow."

Kurt shot David a reproachful look over his shoulder. "We're not giving your cat clam chowder." David's face lowered and he ruffled Cow's fur, by way of apology to the cat. "Stop moping."

"Can't help it. Everything is just so…I guess I can kinda deal with being Wolf. I already knew I was a werewolf; I suppose if I have to be a werewolf, it's better to be one that I at least have a character witness for. Not only that, but it means Alex is my son; which is completely amazing. But…I have about a six and a half-seven year gap of time in which I have no idea what I've been doing three nights a month. Just because Wolf has never hurt you, doesn't mean he's never hurt anyone." David closed his eyes, trying to stave off the nausea that came whenever he thought of his first night as a werewolf. Why had he killed that man? Just looking at him, he had wanted nothing more than to tear him to shreds. Who was that man he had killed? Somewhere out there, there was probably a family still wondering what had happened to their husband, father, son, brother. His mother was dead, yes, and the way in which she had died had been heinous, true, and seeing it happen had been completely horrific.

But at the same time, he was almost sort of lucky…in a twisted sort of way. He knew what happened to her and he knew it had been quick. The man he killed…his family would never know. They'd forever have that niggling question in the back of their minds. How? Why? When? And worst, they couldn't even be entirely certain he'd died. If David's mother had simply disappeared one night, despite knowing she'd never even consider doing it, he'd still find himself wondering if she abandoned him. Had she left because she didn't love him? Did she not care about him? Had he been unwanted?

They were ridiculous, stupid questions. But unless you knew, you couldn't know. Rather than drag Kurt down that dark, depressing train of thought, he picked a less important, though just as annoying thought that had been plaguing him. "I really don't want to go back to school this week."

Kurt hovered the spoon in front of David's mouth and let him take a sip of the chowder. Kurt was definitely a phenomenal cook. Eating his cooking was quickly proving to be yet another amazing benefit of getting to date him. "What's wrong with school? No one needs to know. My dad knows…well, not everything. I told him we'd have to talk about it later, when I had more time. But other than that, no one needs to know you're a werewolf." Kurt placed a hand on David's cheek and rubbed circles over his temple with his thumb. "I mean, someday, yeah, I'd love for you to be out, loud and proud about everything you are: show Alex he should never be ashamed of who and what he is. But, for now, so long as you're there for us, I'm happy. That's all I want."

David took Kurt's hand in his and kissed each knuckle, one after the other. "I will never not be there for you. But, unfortunately, some things can't be avoided. Wolf has been lucky, so far; but, eventually, someone is going to realize that there's an unregistered werewolf running around Lima. He'll be tracked by slayers, thrown into the back of an unmarked, black van, and never seen again. An unregistered werewolf is a werewolf with something to hide, something dangerous, something the government wants to do away with. I've been putting off registering too long. I need to just…suck it up and get it over with."

"Ok, so just don't announce it." Kurt kneeled down in front of David, prompting Alex to, unsuccessfully, try and climb up onto Kurt's lap. "Go to the town hall, fill out the paperwork, file it, ta-da, you're done! No one needs to know. This is your business. No one else's."

David shook his head. "It's not that simple, Kurt. It's public knowledge. It all gets filed online where anyone can see it."

Kurt shrugged. "So? You really think the dolts you go to school with frequent any sites other than Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LOLCats, College Humor, FMyLife, Amazon, and Addicting Games? I've seen Finn's browsing history: it's all him Googling pre-written essays, checking his friend's statuses and tweets, and inappropriate things that would cause Rachel to kill him if she ever saw them. The moment you, Rachel, and I graduate, the collective IQ of that school will drop to the point that it'll require the employment of horticulturists to water the students on a weekly basis."

David didn't want to admit that it took a moment for him to figure out what Kurt was implying. "Yes, they may be dumb as plants, but all it takes is one person to find out."

xoxoxo

Alex, as usual, heard someone come to the front door before anyone else. He scuttled out of the kitchen, across the living room floor and hurled himself at the front door, barking and growling at whomever was on the other side. Paul pressed himself against the door and pushed it in slowly, craning his neck around the side to look at Alex. "Who's that barking at me? Is that my grandson barking at me?" Once Alex could get at Paul, he jumped up Paul's leg, trying to climb as high on him as he could, but not getting more than an inch off the floor. Paul leaned over and reached down to scoop Alex up. Alex, startled at someone he had never seen before trying to pick him up, backed up a foot or so and sat back heavily on his rear end. Paul grabbed Alex around his midsection and pulled him close against his chest, cradling him like you would a baby. "Oh, it's ok. I'm your grandpa." Alex craned his head up and sniffed at Paul, burying his nose in Paul's short beard. Alex recognized Paul's scent. He'd smelled it before on his other daddy. He also smelled faintly of ham and cheese.

He met with Alex's approval.

xoxoxo

Paul sat at the dining room table, with Alex in his lap. Alex loved the amount of attention Paul was giving him; lots of happy little baby talk, kisses on the head, Paul didn't flinch or move away as Alex licked him, lots of nice, hard scratches on the back and behind the ears. Alex wasn't too sure why everyone kept calling this new person "grandpa," but he certainly wasn't going to complain.

Paul was all too happy to be the one to feed Alex during dinner. Kurt had given Paul and Alex their own bowls of the chowder, but Paul barely touched his own; once he had finished spooning Alex's chowder into the werepup's mouth, he began feeding Alex his own food. David, pardon the pun, wolfed his own food down, barely giving it enough time to cool properly. When Paul's own food had disappeared (largely down Alex's mouth), Paul leaned in close to the pup and let him lick at his face, grooming a few stray splotches of cream from his cheek and beard. "Tell you what: you can have my son and the cat, I'll keep Alex. Fair trade?"

Kurt delicately sipped at the last few spoonfuls of his own food while David polished off his drink. "Sorry, no. How about this: I keep Alex, you keep the cat, we share David?"

Paul curled his lip in distaste, "Nah, I'd rather you keep all three, if that's the case."

"Sorry to butt in, but I've only got a few more minutes before the change starts. What are we going to do? The cage obviously doesn't work – even if it weren't lying on its side, right now – and from what you two have told me, it doesn't sound like the werewolf is going to be in a very good mood."

Kurt pursed his lips and looked to Paul. Paul, Alex still in his lap, tented his fingers together on the tabletop in thought. He drew in a deep breath and almost spoke, but then closed his mouth and went back to thinking. Kurt was the first to speak up, "Wolf would never hurt me. I'll talk to him. Now that I know he's you," Kurt pointed his spoon at David, "there's no reason for me to break up with him, so that alone should do quite a bit to soothe his inner beast."

"Outer beast."

"Huh?"

"If he's my inner beast, then when he's me – when I'm him, rather – then he's the outer beast. He is the beast."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "He's no more a beast than you are, David. You are the exact same person…just not. You have different memories and appearance, but personality-wise, you're the exact same person." Intentionally ignoring Kurt, more content to wallow in self-deprecation, David stood up and began clearing the table. Kurt looked towards Paul for guidance on how to respond; Paul shrugged and continued stroking Alex's head.

xoxoxo

"David, help me get the cage back upright?"

Pausing mid-strip show, his t-shirt partially pulled over his chest, David looked his father confusedly. "If the cage doesn't even hold the wolf, what's the point? We should just get rid of that thing."

Paul stood next the overturned cage, examining it from various angles, trying to decide the best plan of attack for "righting" it. "You can easily get out of the cage, yes, but it generally takes a few minutes to pop the lock…a real lock, anyway. A few minutes might be just enough for me and Kurt to reason with the werewolf…Wolf."

Eyeing the cage wearily, David finished sloughing his shirt off and tossed it to the side. "Ok; grab the edge." David and Paul kneeled down by the top edge of the cage.

Kurt joined them and got an odd look for his effort. "What? Just because I'm thin, doesn't mean I'm not strong."

"Just don't hurt yourself. Ready?" Paul and Kurt nodded. "One…Two…Three!" With a heave and a grunt, the three men tilted the cage back onto its base. It was no longer aligned properly with the wall and sat a foot or so away from the wall, but at last it was upright. "Dad, lock me in; Kurt, make sure Alex stays in my room with Cow until we know that Wolf won't cause any problems." David let himself into the cage while Paul went rifling through David's collection of knick-knacks in search of a spare lock. Alex was already shut up in David's bedroom, chasing and taunting the kitten, so Kurt stayed where he was and watched as David finished undressing. Paul courteously kept his back to his son until David had finished pulling of his underwear and had climbed under a large, fuzzy blanket to cloak himself. David made himself comfortable and curled up on his side while he waited for the change. "You don't have to stay down here, Kurt. My dad can tell you when I'm done changing."

David's comment took Kurt by surprise. It hadn't occurred to him not to be here for this. David was his boyfriend; Wolf was his mate. He wanted to be there for him during the few brief moments when the two men were the same, or nearly so. "I'd like to stay."

"Are you sure, Kurt?" Paul snapped the master lock into place on the cage and turned to face his son's lover. "It can be rather…damaging to witness. Traumatizing. It appears extremely painful. It's very difficult to watch."

Kurt shook his head and sat down beside the side of the cage, as close to David as he could get. Reaching through the cage, he took David's hand in his own. "All the more reason for me to stay." David held Kurt's hand, smiling at him. It looked like a drowsy, happy smile to Kurt; he couldn't see the emotion behind it: all the love and adoration David felt. The absolute awe David felt every time he looked at Kurt and realized that was his boyfriend. That was the love of his life. That was the father of his son.

David closed his eyes as he felt the change coming. Snatching his hand away from Kurt, he tensed up as he felt a shift throughout his entire body, as though every nerve had suddenly begun vibrating. It wasn't painful, but it wasn't pleasurable either. After that, he lost all conscious thought.

Kurt watched, helpless, as David went stiff, then began thrashing about. He moved in closer with the intent of moving David's head away from bars of the cage, but felt a firm grip on his shoulder holding him in place. He looked up to see Paul staring down at him sympathetically. "He wont hurt himself; he'll just heal once he's changed. But he could very possibly break your fingers by accidently smashing his head into them and pinioning them against the bars." Kurt moved slightly back from David and watched as he continued with the change. He could easily see the bones beneath David's skin shifting, elongating, even in some case breaking. Paul had been right; it was painful to watch. Kurt refused to believe it wasn't painful to experience.

When the change had completed, David – now Wolf – rolled over onto his stomach and stared at Kurt and Paul. His eyes looked simultaneously sad and angry. Accusatory. He looked at them like traitors. "We aren't you enemies Wolf. Please, just listen to us." Wolf made no attempt to break free of his confines, or to even stand. Instead, he crawled around in a circle until his back was to Kurt. "Don't be like that. I know you're David, now. I love you and David. You're the same person and you're both my boyfriend and you're both Alex's father." Wolf grunted out a short growl, causing his shoulders to rise and slump, but was otherwise still. "I've talked to David all day about how wonderful you are and Paul explained to him how you're trustworthy. No one's going to lock you up any longer and I'm not going to break up with you. You and David need to figure out a way to reconcile with each other since you're the same damn person." Wolf let out a longer, angrier growl, still refusing to look at Kurt or Paul. "David isn't dangerous to you. Not any more. He isn't suicidal, either. He loves Alex too much to hurt himself."

At that, Wolf whipped around and growled openly at Kurt. How could Kurt possibly believe that Human cared about Alex? Alex was a werewolf pup: the bane of Human's existence. "David's starting to accept the fact that is, indeed, a werewolf. He plans on registering as an unhuman and I'm going to see if I can talk him into coming to see my therapist with me." Kurt hadn't even actively thought of that until after the words had left his mouth. "Please Wolf…you have to give David the benefit of the doubt. He's not as horrible as you think…just as you aren't as horrible as he thinks."

Wolf huffed out a sigh. He didn't trust Human: not near his mate and certainly not near his son. But did he really have any choice? If he remained adversarial, Kurt, Human and Human's father would try to find better ways to contain him during the strong moon. And how could he protect his child and mate, if Kurt didn't trust him? Approaching the bars slowly, Wolf stuck just enough of his snout through the bars to lick at Kurt's hand.

xoxoxo

This house was strange. He'd never been upstairs before and had only hazy, passing visions from Human's memories of the upstairs. It was far smaller than the house he had grown up in when he was Human. It also seemed darker, dirtier, smellier and definitely lacked the decorative touch his mother had added to the house. It seemed lonelier, as well: not as many personal touches and few pictures (he had to actively search to spot one).

Even though he had never been up here before, he could find his way around easily (it was small enough that from the living room he could see most of the house). Aside from that, though, it was a tiny matter to follow Alex's scent.

Paul opened the door to David's bedroom. As soon as the door was opened wide enough, Moo Cow came sprinting out with Alex chasing after her. Alex skidded to a stop as he came up to his father. He sniffed curiously at his father, having never seen his father as both a human and a werewolf in so short a time. Wolf leaned over and nuzzled at his son, surreptitiously checking him over for any injuries Human may have caused.