Disclaimer: Everything you recognise from the film series isn't mine.

Feedback: Always appreciated.

The Lone Wolf

When Michael received the text message asking for him to meet Selene at a certain address, he wasn't sure what to expect from it. He liked to think he and the mysterious woman had become some kind of friends, but it was still a change for her to arrange a meeting place rather than just show up at his apartment to talk with him about something.

Still, when she was the best chance he had at regaining any kind of normality in his life beyond his job, he wasn't about to question her when she had done a good job so far. He was saving money on maintaining the storage locker and clothes now that he didn't have to worry about covering the rent by himself or replacing his clothes (even if he wondered how she got in and out of the building without being seen), and a couple of her meditation techniques had stopped the change feeling quite as painful even if he still couldn't stay in control once he was the wolf.

It had taken a couple of days for him to arrange a suitable meeting time for him to get to the address in question, but he was grateful that Selene didn't mind about the night-time visits that seemed to have become part of their schedule. Ever since his change, he might need less sleep, but even with his predominantly night shifts at the hospital he still preferred to leave the days when he felt alert enough to walk around his new home city and take in the sights.

It might seem like just superstition, but on some level, he felt as though he had to keep anything relating to his werewolf/lycan/whatever heritage restricted to the night, as though it would just be easier for him to accept this if he didn't have to face it in the light of day. He hadn't voiced it directly, and Selene always seemed to prefer meeting at night anyway, but he had to wonder what he'd do if she ever proposed a daylight rendezvous…

He forced down the part of his mind that tried to remind him that he might actually like the fact that he had a beautiful woman as basically his exclusive companion at night. They might have talked a bit and watched a film together, but he didn't exactly know that much about Selene beyond that lycans had killed her family, and if she'd been young enough when that happened to train up to the point where she could face what he became and live…

Shaking his head at how he'd let his mind drift, he glanced at the map he'd managed to print out to confirm that he was at the right address. Selene's message had directed him to what looked like another apartment building, but where he liked to think of his building as having character, this one looked like it was just a few bad storms away from being declared outright derelict. Cautiously, Michael opened the door, and was relieved to find that the immediate interior looked a bit more solid than the exterior had, heading up the stairs to the top level. He was just about to start looking around when a door opened and Selene walked out.

"You're here," she nodded at him.

"Uh… yeah," Michael nodded tentatively, hoping that his next question wouldn't offend her. "So… is this your place?"

"Actually, it's essentially our place."

"Ours?" Michael looked at her in surprise, fighting down the strange moment of pleasure he felt at the initial idea; he knew that Selene couldn't mean they were literally going to move in together…

"Look," Selene said, opening the door and standing aside to let him in. Walking past the leather-clad woman, Michael wasn't sure if he should feel impressed or subdued. On first glance, there wasn't much in the apartment, which included what looked like some kind of laboratory in an open area of a large room that looked like a lounge, judging by the couch and the television opposite. However, as Michael looked around, he noticed a couple of additional doors in the walls that he didn't immediately understand until he registered that the nearest door looked significantly newer than the others.

"Uh… is this entire floor one flat?" he looked at Selene in surprise.

"The entire upper level was converted for our purposes."

"Our purposes?"

"To be exact," Selene added as she opened one of the new-looking doors, "this is your new transformation room."

Michael was about to ask what she meant when he stopped to take in the room on the other side of the door. It had to be at least the size of the other half of this floor of the building, but without any windows, and the walls clearly lined with some kind of metal. Michael was surprised to see a couple of holes in the ceiling, as though something had been removed when the rest of the place appeared completely finished, but he had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer to any questions he might ask about that detail. Checking the room interior, he wasn't entirely surprised to see no sign of a handle on this side of the door; if this was to be his 'transformation room', it wouldn't exactly help keep him locked up if the wolf had any opportunity to open it.

"…Looks secure," he decided to say, before he looked back at Selene. "How did you set this up?"

"My people have safehouses scattered all over the city in case we need to interrogate or examine lycans rather than just kill them," Selene explained. "The head of our… security team… owes me a favour or two, so I was able to arrange for this safehouse to be constructed basically 'off the books'."

"Which means… nobody else knows about this place?" Michael looked at her in surprise.

"Only myself and Kahn, and he won't tell anyone," Selene nodded. "As far as he knows, I just requested this place so that I would have a private place for us to meet; I told him nothing about what you are."

"And he'll accept that?"

"Like I said, what you are goes against basically everything I believed I knew about lycans; Kahn has no reason to believe I would ever do anything like this for a lycan, so the idea won't occur to him."

"But he'd believe that you want a private place just to… be with me?" Michael asked, hoping he'd interpreted her explanation correctly.

"The current head of our operations in Budapest has a long-standing… obsession with me," Selene said, her lip curling in a manner that made it clear she didn't want to discuss that situation any further. "If he knew that I was spending any time with a man for reasons other than hunting lycans… well, let's just say it wouldn't be good for your health."

"Ah," Michael observed, deciding not to overthink that particular warning. "Not a nice guy?"

"He's been riding on his reputation from a victory he achieved… a long time ago, and since then I'd be surprised if he's done anything more than attend parties and buy fancy clothes."

"So it's all about him and what he wants rather than actually doing anything to help your campaign, huh?" Michael replied, smiling slightly at the thought of some apparent arrogant rich prick trying to win Selene over with money. "Yeah, I can see why you wouldn't like a guy like that."

Granted, he didn't think that he would have a serious… chance with her- if he was interested in anything like that- but the difference was that he wasn't going to force his attentions where they weren't wanted.

"Quite," Selene said, a bitter edge to her voice before she smiled and continued her explanation. "In any case, my associates and I have used rooms like this to keep lycans contained during the full moon in the past; I can safely confirm that even if your wolf truly loses its temper, it's impossible for you to do enough damage to break out of that room before the sun rises."

"I… see," Michael said, taking in the transformation room one last time before he walked out of the room and turned his attention back to taking in the rest of the flat. There was a computer set up in the area he'd identified as the 'laboratory', along with a few test tubes and a couple of devices that put him in mind of the medical testing equipment used for analysing biological samples, but it generally looked rather basic. "Is this it?"

"Kahn decided it was easier to put this all together if he just focused on providing the bare essentials," Selene explained. "I picked up a few items like the television after he confirmed it was complete, and he's still going to need to provide me with contact details to set up the security system properly, but I thought that you would prefer to help me… decorate, considering that you're the one this place was created for."

"…Thanks," Michael said. Walking further into the flat to take it all in, he wasn't entirely surprised to find a cupboard with a large collection of weapons in it; considering Selene's history, it made sense that she'd make sure any place she might be staying would be able to properly defend itself. There were a couple of bedrooms (Michael refused to feel disappointed that there were two separate rooms), a basic bathroom, and a few books and a desk in a small room that he immediately thought of as a 'study'.

"Looks good," he glanced back at Selene. "I… well, thanks,"

"You're welcome," Selene nodded, before she indicated the television. "In the meantime… if you have time, shall we watch another film?"

"Another?" Michael looked at her with a smile he couldn't entirely supress.

"If you don't… well, it just struck me after we saw Titanic that I haven't done anything just for fun for… well, it's been a while," Selene said, looking surprisingly tentative for the strong woman Michael had become used to. "I rented a film that I thought looked… amusing…"

Looking back at the television, Michael saw the rental DVD lying alongside it- the same shop he'd used when he rented Titanic, he noted- and opened the box to look at the contents.

"The Mask?" he looked back at Selene with a smile.

"It seemed… unconventional," Selene shrugged. "A way of just… getting away from it all for a while, you know?"

"Yeah, I've seen it a while back; it's pretty good," Michael nodded at her. "If you've got the time, I'm up for it if you are."

It wasn't a conventional 'date movie', even if Michael dared to consider what he was doing with Selene any kind of dating, but considering that he was a werewolf and she was a werewolf hunter, surely they deserved a chance to watch something at least a bit funny?